Pennsylvania is coming off a record bear harvest. Hunters took more than 4300 bears last year. Final figures will be available once the Pennsylvania Game Commission reconciles records from a few field-checked bears.

At the same time, Carl Roe, Executive Director of the Game Commission, told the House Game and Fisheries Committee that bear conflicts seemed to escalate last year for some people in more populated areas.  He says they’re seeing bears expand their range, going to areas where we don’t want a large population.

Roe told the panel they’ve responded by opening bear seasons on a weekend to expand hunter opportunity and expanded bear seasons in problem units to increase the harvest.  The commission has also initiated a study to investigate the movements and habitat use of bears in suburban areas.

Roe says there are areas where they want to see the bear population remain stable and others where they would like to see it reduced.  He says the intent is to have a very viable bear population for hunting opportunities.

Roe says they’re not trying to bring the population down to a great degree; they want to keep it in balance with the habitat that’s available.

Roe told the committee that he doesn’t believe the state will ever reach its biological capacity for bears.  He says Pennsylvania has some of the greatest habitat that’s out there. But he says the state will reach its social capacity, and in many areas they have what people will tolerate.