Faced with a fast-growing black-bear population, unprecedented numbers of bear-nuisance complaints and record payouts for bear damage claims, West Virginia wildlife officials want to change the way people hunt the animals.

Division of Natural Resources officials know that the best way to reduce the bear population is to kill female bears before they go into hibernation and give birth. So, in Sunday’s Natural Resources Commission meeting, DNR bear biologist Chris Ryan proposed a September hunting season for counties where bruin populations are starting to cause problems.

If history is any indication, the strategy should work. Prior to 1977, bear seasons opened in November. Hunters had no trouble killing females; in fact, the earlier seasons shrank the statewide bear population to fewer than 500 animals.

In 1977, wildlife officials pushed the bear season back into December. Hunters killed lots of male bears, but most females were safely in their winter dens by then. The bear population rose steadily, and today numbers more than 12,000.

The September season is designed to reverse the bear population trend. Biologists placed the season in September instead of November to avoid conflicts with bowhunters during the peak of the deer rutting season.

If approved by the Natural Resources Commission, the September season would be held this fall in Boone, Barbour, Fayette, Grant, Greenbrier, Hardy, Kanawha, Nicholas, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Preston, Raleigh, Randolph, Tucker and Webster counties. 

Division of Natural Resources biologists recently completed the state’s annual winter waterfowl survey. They counted 1,714 ducks and 3,466 geese — fewer than normal, but about what was expected.

Cold weather in January ordinarily pushes ducks and geese from the Great Lakes region into our area. This year, according to the DNR, warmer-than-normal temperatures allowed those birds to stay north of us.

The upshot? Chances are the state’s duck and goose hunting won’t be much different this year than it has in past years.

West Virginia’s wildlife officials had long wondered whether the state’s spring gobbler season was too long — that hunters were killing more birds than the population could stand.

Happily, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Biologists recently completed a study of radio-collared gobblers, and its results appear to show that the spring season isn’t too long after all.