Letterbox: Expanding black bear hunting season would cause imbalance

Dear editor,

I would like to reach out and express something that has been on my mind for a few months, and I am sure is something others in the Tri-Cities communities are worried about: bears. Specifically, the potential for the province to green light a plan to control the black bear population by extending the bear hunting season during the entirety of August.

I understand that there are frustrations about local farmers losing part of their crops due to bears entering their fields and eating/destroying them. I understand there are concerns about an “overpopulation” of black bears entering the suburbs and towns. I understand there are perfectly legal means to hunt black bears already within the existing hunting season.

My concern is that if bears are openly hunted in the month of August, in which they are a common sight, it will have a negative impact in two ways. (1). It will create many orphan bear cubs who will not be able to thrive or survive on their own. (2). It will cause an imbalance between humans and the ecology that we depend on and enjoy.

We share a home with the numerous black bears, and I feel like an open season on black bears could cause more damage and might not even fix the problems mentioned above.

Sincerely,
Gaelen Huestis