The 2022 bear season will kick off on Wednes-day, September 7 in Zones C, E and F south of  and preference point applications con-tinue to surpass a new high on a regular basis.\n
State Hwy 64 (dog use not permitted).
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is predicting a favorable outlook for the fall bear season. According to Randy Johnson, DNR wild-life biologist who serves as the agency’s large carnivore specialist, bear numbers are strong. He claims most of the states bear zones are showing stable to growing populations.\n Each year we continue to hear that hunters are aging and the younger generations are losing in-terest in hunting. However, bear hunting seems to be an exception. The number of licensed ap-plications
Last year (2021) the DNR surpassed 130,000
people applying for a license or preference point.\n Local bear hunters, who have been baiting throughout the past few weeks, tell me there ap-pears to be a stable population of bear throughout our rural areas landscape. Bear have been mak-ing visits on a frequent basis at a number of bait sites. However, recently as acorns begin to drop from oak trees, some bait stations have shown a decline in visits. Corn maturation has been a few weeks behind schedule this year and bear have taken advantage of its food source.