the problem is that we are dealing with lots of problems here. where i live near the national park there are already to many bear . in the mountain areas west of me for years there were no bear. the vdgif for the past 10yrs has hauled problem bears into remote areas to the west and released them. during those years the deer population has been on a steady decline due to coyotes,bad winters and the growing numbers of bears . plus the fact that the vdgif has refused to cut the number of doe tags allowed . this has pissed off thousands of deer hunters because in many places there are no deer.most life long deer hunters could care less about bear. bear hunter numbers are growing but most are not taking enough bear to help control the population. then there is the other half of the state the could care lass about bear because most places have very few or none. to me this rule change could not have came at a worse time. in the future i see way more bear and very few deer to hunt.
the few of us that live within a few miles of the shenandoah national park have so many bears at times that they will give farmers damage tags weeks before bear season to thin the herd.
i'm hearing that may soon stop. some years i may have 10 bears traveling thru my yard to get to the farms. along with that they tear up everything they can find that even looks or smells like food.they done nothing but create a mess with stupid hunting laws in this state.its like they really don't care if we have game to hunt.
