“The Mountain bear population is increasing annually, and current levels of harvest are not meeting the objective established in the Black Bear Management Plan, which is to stabilize the population,” reads the Wildlife Commission’s explanation of the proposed rule changes.

The proposal seeks to add nine days to the mountain region’s bear season, and to create Saturday openers for each of its two segments. Currently, bear season runs from the Monday on or nearest to Oct. 15 through the Saturday before Thanksgiving and from the third Monday after Thanksgiving through Jan. 1. Under the rule change, the first segment would start on the Saturday immediately prior to Oct. 9 and the second segment would start on the third Saturday after Thanksgiving.

The Wildlife Commission expects this change to shift the composition of the bear harvest, slow population growth and help meet population objectives while providing additional bear hunting opportunities. Since the Wildlife Commission approved a plan to keep population growth at 0% in 2012, the mountain black bear population has grown from an estimated 4,400 to 8,000 bears and is still growing at 3-4% annually. Season dates for the mountain bear hunting season have not changed since 1977, when the regional population was estimated at fewer than 900 bears.

Other changes to bear hunting rules include removing the prohibition on hunting bears with unprocessed bait during the second segment of the mountain bear season and updating some rule text to reflect last year’s shift in terminology from “bear sanctuary” to “designated bear management area.”

Additional proposed changes include:

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• Shift the western blackpowder and gun seasons so that blackpowder season starts two Saturdays before Thanksgiving and runs two weeks until gun season, which will begin the Saturday after Thanksgiving and run through Jan. 1 and shift the one-week and one-day blackpowder anterless seasons to start the second Saturday of the season. Currently, most antlered buck harvest starts before peak breeding, so shifting the seasons later in the year will help boost the population. Shifting the blackpowder anterless dear season will offer more hunting opportunity during the holiday.

• Introduce one-day antlerless gun season on private lands; increase antlerless blackpowder season from one day to one week on lands in Cherokee, Clay, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties; increase antlerless blackpowder season from one week to two in Buncombe and Henderson counties where antlerless deer harvest is allowed during gun season. The Wildlife Commission says that continued herd growth is expected, and that increased antlerless harvest is sustainable, and will balance the buck to doe ratio while providing hunters with additional opportunities.

• Clarify when dogs can be used to take invasive feral swine on game lands and expand opportunities for dogs to be used outside of open deer and bear seasons.

• Clarify that tributaries to the Hatchery Supported Trout Waters section of the West Fork Pigeon River in Haywood County on Pisgah Game Land are classified as Wild Trout Waters. These tributaries have never been stocked but have been misidentified as Hatchery Supported Trout Waters in the state’s administrative code.

• Remove the Wild Trout Natural Waters/Natural Bait classification and reclassify several waters from Wild Trout Waters/Natural Bait to Wild Trout Waters: the game land portions and their tributaries of Bald Creek and Dockery Creek in Cherokee County, Long Creek in Graham County, the Chattooga River in Jackson and Macon counties, Kimsey Creek and Park Creek in Macon County, North Fork French Broad River in Transylvania County and the Thompson River in Transylvania County. Bait anglers rarely use Wild Trout/Natural Bait streams. The classification never expanded regionally beyond District 9, is not requested by anglers and adds unnecessary regulatory complexity, the Wildlife Commission says.

• Prohibit fishing in the Pleasant Grove floodplain slough in Henderson County connected to the French Broad River March 1 through May 31 to protect muskellunge spawning.

• Reaffirm the Wildlife Commission’s authority over certain species designated as inland game fish in all public fishing waters and clarify various fishing rules. There had been confusion as to the Wildlife Commission’s authority over inland game fish in Joint Fishing Waters.

• Update a rule prohibiting hunting on designated game lands “under the influence of alcohol or any narcotic drug” to prohibit hunting “under the influence of an impairing substance.” This change responds to officers encountering people impaired due to marijuana use, which is not a narcotic drug, preventing officers from charging these individuals for hunting while under the influence.

• Make the most serious fisheries-related crimes eligible for the Wildlife Poacher Reward Program, which rewards people who offer information on these crimes. Despite the large percentage of criminal activity reported by the public, no inland fisheries crimes are currently eligible for the program. These violations represent a significant loss of inland fishery resources as well as substantial replacement cost to the Commission.

• Make several changes pertaining to dog training and field trials, including removing the requirement to band domestically raised game birds and allow people training bird dogs outside of hunting seasons and controlled hunting preserves to release up to six domestically raised game birds per day.  

• Amend several rules pertaining to controlled hunting preserves for domestically raised game birds and game bird propagation rules to get rid of outdated rules, simplify regulations and bring them into alignment with how controlled hunting preserves are currently used.

• Prohibit a wildlife control agent with a suspended or revoked license from obtaining a wildlife control technician certification, closing a loophole in the current regulations.

Written comments on these proposals can be submitted through Tuesday, Jan. 30. A public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, at the Haywood Community College Auditorium in Clyde, and virtually at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18. Read the regulations, submit comments or register for the virtual hearing at ncwildlife.org/proposed-regulations .

— Holly Kays, Outdoors Editor