bzzboyz
12-02-2004, 04:21 PM
12/2/04 Black bear return plan to be presented tonight
By CHRISTINE S. DIAMOND The Lufkin Daily News
The final draft of a plan to return the black bear to East Texas will be presented at 7 tonight at the meeting room in the back of the Angelina County Courthouse.
"Currently, the status of the Louisiana black bear in East Texas is unknown; however, bear sightings are on the rise and their interactions with the public are expected to increase in the future," states the newly released "East Texas Black Bear Conservation and Management Plan.
East Texas, particularly the Big Thicket, was the habitat of Texas’ last indigenous black bears more than half a century ago, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
A surge in black bear sightings occurred here in the late 1960s as a result of a Louisiana conservation project that released 161 bears translocated from Minnesota. Many of those bears wandered, fatally, into Texas.
Since 1977, TPWD has recorded 24 "reliable" bear sightings in 22 East Texas counties -- including Angelina and Nacogdoches. More than half of those sightings were recorded in the last decade.
The plan being released tonight states that it “was produced in the spirit of conservation, to manage and restore suitable black bear habitat, for the purpose of re-establishing the bear as a viable part of the native wildlife community of East Texas. ... A well designed and funded information and education campaign is necessary to gain public and political support for bears in East Texas."
The plan also recognizes that the greatest challenge would be managing potential conflict between people and bears.
Black bears, the parks and wildlife department says, are normally non-aggressive.
"Approximately 80 percent of the nuisance calls in Arkansas are a result of a bear which is actually causing no problem at all," the plan states. "The remaining calls result almost categorically as a result of improper human garbage and food management. This trend also holds true in Arkansas. Complaints on bears increase in drought years, which often produce natural food shortages."
Tonight’s meeting is one of five being held throughout East Texas.
Wildlife biologist Nathan Garner will give a presentation on the black bear, its characteristics, its history and its future as it pertains to living in East Texas.
Christine S. Diamond's e-mail address is cdiamond@coxnews.com.
By CHRISTINE S. DIAMOND The Lufkin Daily News
The final draft of a plan to return the black bear to East Texas will be presented at 7 tonight at the meeting room in the back of the Angelina County Courthouse.
"Currently, the status of the Louisiana black bear in East Texas is unknown; however, bear sightings are on the rise and their interactions with the public are expected to increase in the future," states the newly released "East Texas Black Bear Conservation and Management Plan.
East Texas, particularly the Big Thicket, was the habitat of Texas’ last indigenous black bears more than half a century ago, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
A surge in black bear sightings occurred here in the late 1960s as a result of a Louisiana conservation project that released 161 bears translocated from Minnesota. Many of those bears wandered, fatally, into Texas.
Since 1977, TPWD has recorded 24 "reliable" bear sightings in 22 East Texas counties -- including Angelina and Nacogdoches. More than half of those sightings were recorded in the last decade.
The plan being released tonight states that it “was produced in the spirit of conservation, to manage and restore suitable black bear habitat, for the purpose of re-establishing the bear as a viable part of the native wildlife community of East Texas. ... A well designed and funded information and education campaign is necessary to gain public and political support for bears in East Texas."
The plan also recognizes that the greatest challenge would be managing potential conflict between people and bears.
Black bears, the parks and wildlife department says, are normally non-aggressive.
"Approximately 80 percent of the nuisance calls in Arkansas are a result of a bear which is actually causing no problem at all," the plan states. "The remaining calls result almost categorically as a result of improper human garbage and food management. This trend also holds true in Arkansas. Complaints on bears increase in drought years, which often produce natural food shortages."
Tonight’s meeting is one of five being held throughout East Texas.
Wildlife biologist Nathan Garner will give a presentation on the black bear, its characteristics, its history and its future as it pertains to living in East Texas.
Christine S. Diamond's e-mail address is cdiamond@coxnews.com.