SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Bear hunting season is under way in California, and a local wildlife advocacy group is upset over the way a state agency is managing the hunt.
In April, the California Department of Fish and Game changed the rules from selling a limited number of bear tags each season to selling as many as were requested.
The season, which opened Oct. 14, will stay open until Dec. 31 or when 1,500 bears have been killed, whichever comes first.
Ann Bryant, executive director of the local Bear League, said the rule change leaves room for hunting over the limit. That happened last year when 1,833 bears were killed, despite a 1,500-bear limit, she said.
''We fought it and a lot of people wrote letters and argued the decision but it passed anyway,'' Bryant told the Tahoe Daily Tribune.
''You have all these people out in the field who don't know how many have been taken and by the time the word gets out that the limit's been reached, hundreds of bears have been killed.''
But Fish and Game officials defend the change, noting California is home to an estimated 23,000 black bears.
Allowing a take of 1,500 bears from California mountains and valleys keeps the population at a sustainable level, said Mike Grima, regional patrol chief for the agency.
''Last year, the limit was reached about a month before the close date. It went really fast,'' he said.
This year, about 800 bears were killed in October. Hunters are limited to one bear per season.
Controlling the population through the hunt is not a viable solution to Bryan, whose group has worked to reduce human-bear conflicts at Lake Tahoe.
''I'm frantic - I've worked so hard all summer long with these bears to get them out of the (residential areas) and back into the woods,'' she said. ''Now they're sitting ducks.''
Bears are off limits to hunters on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.
Nevada Division of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy said his state is home to 200 to 300 bears.
''There's really not much bear habitat in Nevada, just the eastern Sierra and most of that is in Tahoe,'' he said.
