The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation released the 2009 black bear harvest numbers this week, and according to their figures, only 2003 saw a bigger statewide harvest than 2009.
Across the state, black bear hunters harvested 1,487 black bears, a 15-percent increase from 2008 and a little less than 400 shy of the current record of 1,864 from 2003. In a press release issued earlier this week, the agency stated that expanded hunting opportunities, a healthy bear population, favorable weather and a solid food supply attributed to the hunting success.
Still, it was the Adirondacks, or northern zone, that accounted for nearly half of the harvest with 814 bears coming from the Adirondack region. Of those, 426 were taken during the popular early bear season which begins in mid-September.
Adirondack bowhunters took 44 bears while black powder hunters took 128. Another 216 were harvested during the regular big-game season in which hunters experienced warmer than average temperatures. While this might have been bad for deer hunting, along with good feed, it kept bears from heading for their dens.
As for the local figures, 47 bears were harvested in Clinton County and 66 in Essex County. The best hunting was in St. Lawrence County where hunters took 122 bears. Lewis County was not far behind with 119. Hamilton County in the interior of the Adirondacks yielded 93 bears while Warren County hunters took 69.
The town of Black Brook was Clinton County's leader with 15 bears harvested while Saranac was second with 14. All others were in the single digits, including one in Plattsburgh. In Essex County, nine bears were harvested in both Keene and Schroon, which led the pack in that county.
Some interesting figures lie in two Adirondack counties to the south. In Warren County, the Town of Johnsburg had 29 bears, while in Stony Creek the number was 13. The harvest for all other towns in the county were in the single digits. Only one bear was taken in Washington County and that was in the Town of Putnam, just south of Ticonderoga.
While the DEC encourages bear hunting, they would like to see hunters play a more active role in bear management by submitting tooth samples of the bears they kill. To encourage participation, the agency offers the NYS Bear Cooperator Patch to successful hunters who submit a tooth from their bears. This year some 750 patches will be awarded.
For more information on last season's bear harvest, visit DEC's Web site at www.dec.ny.gov.
Although it won't be as big of a success story as the bear harvest, I do hope to have a similar report on the fall deer harvest in my next column.
Dan Ladd is the author of "Deer Hunting in the Adirondacks," outdoors editor for the Glens Falls Chronicle, columnist for Outdoors Magazine and contributor to New York Outdoor News. Contact him at www.adkhunter.com.
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