New WI Bear Zones for 2021

[Mike Foss]

For you bear hunters applying for a kill tag starting in 2021 the bear zones will be changing.

[Derbooze]

Mike - I would be interested to hear your perspective on the new C E and F zones. I received a map of the bear harvested in 2019 and it would appear for example that about 15 bear were harvested in zone F and roughly 75 in zone E. It seems like a lot of work to separate out 2% of the harvest (there were 3,648 bears harvested in 2019). Now I have never hunted with hounds, mostly because I can't afford it in either money or time spent in training dogs, but it would seem that the benefit is very skewed towards hound hunters. I appreciated that I could hunt over bait in zone C without having to wait 5-10 years between draws. I fear this will make my opportunities, and therefore my willingness to DIY hunts, even fewer.

To be fair the zones E and F represent 10% of the zone C harvest.

[Mike Foss]

I’ve never had any experience in hunting in Zone C, but I know if they would give out less tags in C they would have killed more bears. With these new 2 zones it will be interesting to see how many tags that will be given out, if it’s the same amount combined as in the past I don’t see anything changing as far as success. I believe in the last 2 years participation in the bear application process has dipped. If a guy has private property to hunt on that’s just a bonus, if hunting on public, it will once again be stacked with hunters. I don’t see zone C E F ever being a quality hunt, it will never be, I see it as a control hunt, they don’t want the bear population to ever get out of control in the central & southern part of the state. Hunter participation is a key $$$$$$ maker for the State and sometimes I believe money rules over the well being of the natural resources.

[Derbooze]

Thanks for that perspective. It will certainly be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

[Mike Foss]

Thanks for that perspective. It will certainly be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

No problem Brett

[PeteD]

I heard about this and it will be interesting. I have enough points to draw any unit except B. I have harvested two, one with dogs and one archery over bait. I need to figure out what to do with my WI points and MI points.