Please contact LDWF Secretary Robert Barham who is considering this.

The once threatened Louisiana black bear has made such a comeback that Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham is pushing to have a black bear hunting season. “We’ve got over 1,000 black bears now, and the population is growing,’’ Barham said as guest speaker at the Farmerville Lions Club last Thursday. “I’m working hard to get tags to get a hunting season for black bears.’’ The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Louisiana black bear as threatened in 1992. Due to habitat loss with large tracts of forest being cleared for farming, and hunting, the black bears numbers dwindled to just a few hundred in the state. However, the black bear population has grown tremendously over the last few years and in fact, black bear sightings are common in Union Parish, particularly in the northeast corner of the parish where they commonly raid deer feeders. “You’ve got an overlap in this part of the state with bears coming from Felsenthal and Tensas,’’ Barham said.