Episode 17 - The HSUS Black Bear Petition

On today’s episode, I chat with Wendy Keefover, Senior Strategist of Native Carnivore Protection with the Wildlife Protection Department at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). This episode was a chance for all of us to pause and spend some time listening to each other to better understand different, sometimes opposing, perspectives. It was an opportunity for us to use this platform as a table for discussion and not head-butting argument. The HSUS recently submitted a petition to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to close the black bear hunt in California and calling on the CDFW to enhance the science around black bear abundance in the state and update their black bear management plan. Hunters mobilized leading up to the California Fish and Game Commission meeting that heard the petition on February 17 to advocate for the continuation of the hunt. At the same time, some hunters recognize the need for better science on black bears and up to date population estimates. What does it mean for hunters and the HSUS to agree on the need for better science? What happens if we get that science, and it inevitably supports one perspective and not the other? Wendy and I chat about the idea of collaboration, dialogue, how we navigate temporary convergence in goals between groups, and try to disentangle social understandings of “trophy hunting.” In the conservation segment, I review a new expert panel report that finds our current approach to global conservation will not be enough to avoid continued biodiversity decline (53:00); cover a proposed regulation change in British Columbia that will drastically reduce moose and caribou hunting opportunities (1:02:23); and give a couple quick reading recommendations relevant to hunter-conservationists (1:07:25).

In this episode, we discuss:

Article: “Editorial: Are California’s bears in peril? Suspend hunting season until we know”: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-02-05/lets-not-hunt-more-bears-until-we-know-how-many-are-there Paper: Estes et al. “Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth”: https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.1205106 Paper: “Population reduction by hunting helps control human–wildlife conflicts for a species that is a conservation success story”: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237274 Paper: “Sustainability of the Grizzly Bear Hunt in British Columbia, Canada”: https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jwmg.21189 Paper: “The Polar Bear Management Agreement for the Southern Beaufort Sea: An Evaluation of the First Ten Years of a Unique Conservation Agreement”: https://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic55-4-362.pdf Article: “Global conservation goals are insufficient to avoid mass extinction event, report finds”: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-countries-must-broaden-scope-to-meet-conservation-goals-report-says/ Report: “Expert Input to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework”: https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/16b6/e126/9d46160048cfcf74cadcf46d/wg2020-03-inf-11-en.pdf C. government negotiations agreement: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2021IRR0063-001940 C. regulation proposal: https://apps.nrs.gov.bc.ca/ahte/content/close-peace-caribou-hunts-and-reduce-peace-moose-hunts-region-wide University of Calgary Faculty of Law blog on Yahey v British Columbia: https://ablawg.ca/2021/09/24/yahey-v-british-columbia-and-the-clarification-of-the-standard-for-a-treaty-infringement/ Action: BC Wildlife Federation Peace Region Hunting Regulations campaign: https://bcwf.bc.ca/peace-region-hunting-regulations/ My Goodreads page for all my book recommendations: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/69758704-paul-mccarney?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=conservation