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Maryland Black Bear Hunt Closed

Maryland Black Bears

Maryland Department of Natural Resources

OAKLAND, MD —-(AmmoLand.com)- The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced the conclusion of the 2009 black bear hunting season.

The season opened Monday, October 26 in Garrett and Allegany counties. The hunt was officially closed Thursday, October 29, at 9:00 p.m. with 68 bears reported to mandatory check stations in Western Maryland.

Harry Spiker, Game Mammal Section Leader for DNR’s Wildlife & Heritage Service, said “The 2009 bear hunt was an unqualified success. Despite marginal weather conditions most of the week, our harvest range of 60-85 bears was met in four days. The hunt remains a safe, effective, well-regulated and scientifically sound tool for sustainably managing our bear population.”

Spiker added, “The new permit application preference point system proved effective this year. More than 3,600 hunters applied for one of the 240 available bear hunting permits and 81% of the permits were awarded to applicants with one or more preference points”.

The average estimated live weight of the bears taken this year was 140 lbs. The largest bear of the season was a 409 lb. male taken by Wayne Chenoweth of Westminster, MD.

The hunt by the numbers:

• Harvest goal: 60-85 bears
• 68 bears taken
• 60 from Garrett County, 8 from Allegany County
• 140 lbs. average weight
• 74% of the bears were taken on private land
• 4 bears were previously tagged and treated as nuisance bears
• 552 hunters participated in the hunt and 3,608 hunters applied for a permit

For more information about Maryland’s black bears visit www.DNR.MD.gov/Wildlife.

About:
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is the state agency responsible for providing natural and living resource-related services to citizens and visitors. DNR manages more than 461,000 acres of public lands and 17,000 miles of waterways, along with Maryland’s forests, fisheries, and wildlife for maximum environmental, economic and quality of life benefits. A national leader in land conservation, DNR-managed parks and natural, historic, and cultural resources attract 12 million visitors annually. DNR is the lead agency in Maryland’s effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay, the state’s number one environmental priority. Learn more at www.dnr.maryland.gov.

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Volunteers Needed To Help Monitor Wolf Populations In Wisconsin
Wolf tracking training sessions and ecology courses set.

Wisconsin DNR

MADISON, Wisconsin - People interested in volunteering to help locate and count gray wolves and other forest carnivores in the coming year can learn how at a series of upcoming training sessions.

In Wisconsin wolves are a protected wild animal under state law, and due to court action on July 1, 2009, are again an endangered species under federal law.

Volunteer trackers are assigned survey blocks in forest portions of northern and central Wisconsin, and are asked to conduct three or more surveys in their assigned block each winter. Information they gather can be compiled with that of other volunteers to aid Department of Natural Resources biologists in evaluating wolf populations.

Wolf and Carnivore Tracker Training sessions are scheduled:

• Nov. 7, Ashland, Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center, Highway 2 & G, west of Ashland.
• Dec. 5, Babcock, Sandhill Outdoor Skills Center, 1 mile north of Highway 173 along County Road X.
• Dec. 5-6, Grantsburg, Crex Meadow Visitor Center, along County Highway D, 1 mile north of Grantsburg.
• Dec. 12, Tomahawk, Treehaven UW-Stevens Point Field Station on Pickerel Creek Road off County A.

Training sessions will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Applicants should register as soon as possible because space is limited. Please try to register at least two weeks before each session. There is a small fee for the classes. The training at Crex Meadows near Grantsburg on Dec. 5-6 will be by world renowned tracker, Dr. James Halfpenny. Cost of the workshop has yet to be determined.

Details about the volunteer tracking program and the wolf ecology and tracking training sessions are available on the Department of Natural Resources Web site.

In late winter 2009 DNR biologists counted between 626 and 662 wolves in the state, including 599 or more outside Indian reservations. As of early fall, 62 wolves were being radio tracked by Wisconsin DNR pilots. Normally about one-third of the state packs are monitored by radio-telemetry, the remaining packs are monitored by DNR and volunteer trackers.

In 2009, 174 volunteer trackers surveyed 88, 200-square-mile survey blocks covering 8,062 miles of snow-covered roads and trails. Volunteers averaged 4.2 surveys per block, covering 91.6 miles, conducting 15 hours of tracking per block, and detected more than 367 different wolves.

“With the continued spread of the state wolf population and reduced funding for surveys, the volunteer carnivore tracking program is critical for us to obtain accurate counts of the state wolf population,” said Adrian Wydeven, DNR mammal ecologist who coordinates the state wolf program. “These surveys will continue to be important for long-term conservation of wolves and other forest carnivores in Wisconsin.”

Volunteers are also helpful in other ways, Wydeven said. Last fall, several volunteers conducted hunter outreach in the field and made contacts with deer hunters across several northern counties. During the spring volunteers helped with wolf trapping, radio collaring, donations of radio collars, and howl surveys as well as staffing educational booths at sport shows and other events.

Volunteers are also strongly encouraged to take a wolf ecology course if they have not done so already, and biologists recommend taking the ecology course before signing up for track training workshops. Wolf ecology courses will be offered next year on the following dates at the locations listed.

• Jan. 23-24, Babcock – Sandhill Outdoor Skills Center, Babcock, $75 (includes 2 meals & dorm lodging). Contact Dick Thiel at Richard.Thiel@wisconsin.gov
• Jan. 30-31, Fall Creek – Beaver Creek Reserve, cost $70 contact the Beaver Creek Reserve at bcr@beavercreekreserve.org
• Jan. 30-31, Tomahawk – Treehaven, cost $105-$140 (includes meals; opt. lodging), contact Treehaven at treehaven@uwsp.edu
• Feb. 20-21, Babcock – Sandhill Outdoor Skills Center, cost $75 (includes 2 meals & dorm lodging), contact Dick Thiel at Richard.Thiel@wisconsin.gov
• Feb. 27-28, Tomahawk – Treehaven, cost $105-$140 (includes meals; opt. lodging), contact Treehaven at treehaven@uwsp.edu

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Adrian Wydeven – (715) 762-1363

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