Why It Matters: Thanks to the conservation management efforts of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and their partners, utilizing funding generated in large part by hunters through the American System of Conservation Funding, data supports establishing a highly regulated hunting season for black bears in Florida. This would provide hunters with the opportunity to pursue a species in which their conservation dollars played a role in ensuring healthy black bear populations to a point where a hunting season can be considered.
Highlights:
- During the December 2024 Commission meeting, FWC staff were instructed to put together options for a black bear hunting season in 2025.
- In advance of the May 2025 meeting where those options would be presented, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) submitted comments in support of re-establishing a black bear season in Florida.
- On May 21, CSF’s Assistant Manager, Southeastern States Mark Lance spoke at the Commission meeting, urging the Commission to follow the science presented by FWC staff and vote favorably on bringing a black bear hunting season back to Florida.
- The Commission voted 4-1 to accept FWC’s Alternative 2, which would allow for black bear hunting in the future. The proposal will have its final vote at the Commission’s August meeting where, if it passes, the black bear season will take place in December 2025.
Formulating wildlife policy utilizing the best available science is also one of the key tenets of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, which is regarded as the most effective wildlife management model in the world. FWC presented data that shows that bears are stable and increasing statewide. With an estimated 4,000 bears, Florida has far and away the most bears of the six states that have resident bear populations that are not hunted.
If Alternative 2 is approved in August, the Commission will have the ability to set the season structure between October 1 and December 31 and determine the number of tags to be distributed to meet management objectives. For the 2025 season, the dates would fall from the first Saturday in December to the last Sunday in December with 187 tags being made available through a lottery system across 4 proposed bear hunting zones. All legal methods of take for deer would be allowed for black bears. In subsequent seasons, the use of dogs would be allowed as well to aid in selective harvest. There would also be a private lands bear harvest program created that would incentivize large landowners with 5,000 acres or more of contiguous land to conserve bear habitat and provide owners with no more than 3 tags to hunt and harvest bears on their property.
CSF’s letter of support towards establishing a black bear hunting season stated: “Hunters in the Sunshine State should be afforded the opportunity to pursue black bears through regulated hunting supported by science-based wildlife management decision making. Sportsmen generated conservation dollars played a critical part in its recovery and would further support black bear conservation in the state.”
CSF applauds the Commission for voting favorably on the proposal, and we look forward to continuing to work alongside our partners to bring a black bear season back to Florida.
