SANTA ROSA COUNTY, Fla. — This week, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is set to vote on a possible black bear hunt for the state.
If approved, it would be the first hunt in a decade.
The FWC says this hunt would help overpopulation across the state — specifically in the ‘east panhandle zone’.
But , the closest county in that region to us is bay county.
Some Santa Rosa County residents and elected officials believe black bears should be hunted here as well.
“It’s just one of those things that’s not going to get better,” Navarre resident Bruce Morgan said. “It’ll just continue to get worse.”
The FWC plans to address black bear overpopulation across the state with a bear hunt.
This Wednesday, the commission will hear the last public input before a final vote.
The ‘west panhandle zone,’ which are Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, and Walton counties would be excluded from the hunt.
Morgan wonders why Santa rosa was not included. His home was broken into at the beginning of June by a momma bear and her cubs.
“The population is just getting out of hand in this area now,” Morgan said.
While Morgan doesn’t want the black bears to be hunted, he agrees something needs to be done.
“I don’t want to kill our bears,” Morgan said. “Just relocate them back to somewhere else where they can roam in thousands of acres.”
A Fort Walton Beach man shot and killed a black bear in his neighborhood the same month Morgan’s home was broken into.
The FWC says the bear knocked over the man’s griddle in his backyard. That’s when he shot the bear.
He was charged with a misdemeanor because it’s illegal to kill a black bear in the state unless it’s done in self defense. The man’s neighbor, supports the hunt.
“As long as they’re not in the neighborhood doing it,” Fort Walton Beach resident Jay Carney said. “You have to call the herd sometimes and if they become a nuisance and lives are in danger or properties are in danger, you have to do what you gotta do.”
Back in May, a Gulf Breeze man was bitten by a black bear.
This years proposed hunt would happen in December and would cap the hunt at 187 bears.
That’s only 4% of the FWC’s estimated 4,050 black bears in the state.
Representative Michelle Salzman says black bear overpopulation is a real issue in Santa Rosa and Escambia counties.
“Up until recently before I co-sponsored a bill that allowed for people to actually defend themselves against these animals, you couldn’t do anything,” District 1 Rep. Michelle Salzman said. “You would literally be pinned in your home and wouldn’t be able to get out to go to work or maybe you have an emergency, you can’t even leave your house.
She says she will support whatever her constituents want.
“We’ve been bombarded with requests to defend themselves from these bears,” Salzman said. “Now we’re getting a lot of requests for the hunting component. I’m just here to serve the people and that’s what the people want. I’m happy to support that.”
The last black bear hunt happened in 2015 ended in just two days when the hunting quota was met.
The FWC meeting is set for Wednesday morning at 8:30 in Gadsden County.