According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the state is number one in the country for hunters killing black bears, something the agency is looking to build on.
The state’s Natural Resources Board has approved a quota of 4,750 for this year’s bear season, an increase of 50 over last year. The DNR will also issue a record number of bear hunting permits.
The DNR’s Dave MacFarland said the last six bear seasons have seen the highest kill totals in state history.
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“Wisconsin is the number one state in the nation for black bear harvest,” said MacFarland “We’re harvesting more bears than any other state in the country; the second-highest state is Alaska.”
This fall, MacFarland said, state officials wants to decrease the bear population in the far northwestern part of the state due to the number of nuisance bear complaints there. The DNR also hopes to get more hunters to go to some lightly-hunted areas of southern Wisconsin, where the bear population is less dense, but increasing.
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