Is California The Black Bear Capital Now?

One of my closest friends is a Cal (Berkeley) graduate fans, and fans of the Golden Bears’ teams are known to sing, “You know it; you tell the story; you tell the whole damn word this Bear Territory!”

Perhaps the whole state – even, heaven forbid, fans of Cal’s hated rival Stanford, UCLA and my alma mater Fresno State, will sign the praises as black bear territory. After a recent black bear management plan released by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the San Francisco Chronicle wondered if aloud if California is indeed the nation’s black bear capital. Here’s more on the subject:

In 1992, the running black bear population estimate in California was 10,000 to 15,000 individuals; today that estimate has risen to 60,000 animals — though there could be about 10,000 more, according to the planning document. They’re estimated to range across roughly 40% of the state’s land area, according to the document.

“We need to adjust and put in good practices to coexist with bears,” said Arjun Dheer, statewide black bear coordinator for the department’s Wildlife Branch. “Bears are very charismatic … but they are not necessarily easy to live alongside.”

The new plan updates an older one last published in 1998 and has been a decade in the making. It doesn’t propose or initiate new policies for handling bears but presents a framework to monitor their populations and behaviors that will be used to guide future decisions.

The report also stated CDFW’s report suggested that California could soon have the most dense concentration of black beaes in the world. Bear territory, indeed. Now only if the state with a flag that pays homage to the grizzly can someday return that species within the state’s borders.