dla,

I am in agreement. We have lost hunting pressure on black bears in the last 20 years. There are now habituated bears in the Lake Tahoe Basin that do not hibernate and gain weight on human generated garbage during the winter. Some of these bears are over 500 pounds and have no fear of humans. The problem bears are either killed or airlifted into the mountains behind my house.

My neighbor works on some of the large estates at Tahoe. On the Cal-Neva peninsula there are 8 different bears he sees every week. Last May he was the victim of a predatory charge in broad daylight. No wuffing, no jaw snapping. He just put his head down and charged. My friend made it to his truck with 20 feet to spare.