In Colorado this fall, voters could decide to outlaw hunting for mountain lions and bobcats. That’s on the heels of a controversial reintroduction of wolves—mandated by another Colorado ballot initiative—last December. In Washington two years ago, an activist fish and wildlife commission’s first act was indefinitely closing a popular spring black bear hunt. Meanwhile in New Jersey, black bear hunting has been stop and go for decades as governors flip-flop on their stances regarding bear management (sometimes for the better) and anti-hunting groups pressure lawmakers into hunting bans.
On the other side of the yawning abyss that separates predator advocates from predator critics, Idaho’s legislature passed a bill in 2021 that allows hunters and trappers to kill up to 90 percent of the state’s wolf population. Over in Montana, trappers are…
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Game & Fish East (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2024