Florida officials weigh first bear hunt in a decade amid controversy
The Brief
Florida officials are considering a bear hunt in December to manage the growing black bear population.
The proposed hunt would last three weeks, longer than the controversial 2015 hunt.
Opponents argue conservation, not hunting, is the solution, with a vote set for May.
ORLANDO, Fla. - Florida officials are considering a bear hunt in December to manage the growing black bear population.
What we know
Florida wildlife officials are considering a proposal to allow bear hunting for the first time in nearly a decade. The proposed hunt, scheduled for December, would last three weeks — significantly longer than the 2015 hunt, which was cut short after two days when hunters neared the 320-bear limit.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) says the hunt aims to manage the growing black bear population, now exceeding 4,000.
What we don't know
Officials have yet to finalize key details, including the exact number of bears that would be allowed to be hunted across the state and in Central Florida. It's also unclear how public opposition might impact the final decision.
The backstory
Bear sightings in Florida have become more frequent, with some bears venturing onto porches and into yards. In 2023, a Daytona Beach woman encountered a bear outside her front door. The last hunt in 2015 sparked protests, with opponents arguing it was unnecessary. It ended early after hunters killed 304 bears in just two days.
Big picture view
As urban expansion continues, deforestation has pushed bears closer to residential areas, increasing human-bear encounters. Opponents argue that vehicle collisions already account for hundreds of bear deaths annually and that conservation efforts should focus on preserving habitats rather than hunting.
What they're saying
Supporters have said, in part, that a hunt could help better manage bear populations as the animals interact with humans and point to a voter-approved ballot measure in November that enshrined hunting and fishing rights in the state Constitution.
Opponents of the hunt, like activist Katrina Shadix, believe bear hunting is not a necessary solution.
"We don't want trophy killing. We want responsible bear management, and that includes buying land for conservation, so our wildlife can survive this massive attack of deforestation."
She also points to bear fatalities from car accidents.
"A hunt is not necessary to control the population because, right now, we have over 300 cars hitting and killing bears here in Florida."
Timeline
FWC commissioners are set to vote on the proposed hunt this May. If approved, the hunt would take place in December.
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The Source
This story was written based on information shared by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the News Service of Florida, and activist Katrina Shadix, who opposes the bear hunt.
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Amid the storm of executive orders issued by Trump in the early days of his second term was one that sought to redefine birthright citizenship by barring it for children of parents who are in the U.S. unlawfully. Another would overhaul how federal elections are run, among other changes requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship. Courts so far have blocked both orders. The Constitution says that 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.' It also leaves the administration of elections to the states. The case in Whittier began with Pese's wife, Tupe Smith. After the couple moved to Whittier in 2018, Smith began volunteering at the Whittier Community School, where nearly half of the 55 students were American Samoan — many of them her nieces and nephews. She would help the kids with their English, tutor them in reading and cook them Samoan dishes. 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A question of intent About 10 months later, troopers returned to Whittier and issued court summonses to Pese, eight other relatives and one man who was not related but came from the same American Samoa village as Pese. One of Smith's attorneys, Neil Weare, grew up in another U.S. territory, Guam, and is the co-founder of the Washington-based Right to Democracy Project, whose mission is 'confronting and dismantling the undemocratic colonial framework governing people in U.S. territories.' He suggested the prosecutions are aimed at 'low-hanging fruit' in the absence of evidence that illegal immigrants frequently cast ballots in U.S. elections. Even state-level investigations have found voting by noncitizens to be exceptionally rare. 'There is no question that Ms. Smith lacked an intent to mislead or deceive a public official in order to vote unlawfully when she checked 'U.S. citizen' on voter registration materials,' he wrote in a brief to the Alaska Court of Appeals last week, after a lower court judge declined to dismiss the charges. Prosecutors say her false claim of citizenship was intentional, and her claim to the contrary was undercut by the clear language on the voter application forms she filled out in 2020 and 2022. The forms said that if the applicant did not answer yes to being over 18 years old and a U.S. citizen, 'do not complete this form, as you are not eligible to vote.' A dispute entangled with a colonial past The unique situation of American Samoans dates to the 19th century, when the U.S. and European powers were seeking to expand their colonial and economic interests in the South Pacific. The U.S. Navy secured the use of Pago Pago Harbor in eastern Samoa as a coal-refueling station for military and commercial vessels, while Germany sought to protect its coconut plantations in western Samoa. Eventually the archipelago was divided, with the western islands becoming the independent nation of Samoa and the eastern ones becoming American Samoa, overseen by the Navy. The leaders of American Samoa spent much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries arguing that its people should be U.S. citizens. Birthright citizenship was eventually afforded to residents of other U.S. territories — Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Congress considered it for American Samoa in the 1930s, but declined. Some lawmakers cited financial concerns during the Great Depression while others expressed patently racist objections, according to a 2020 article in the American Journal of Legal History. Supporters of automatic citizenship say it would particularly benefit the estimated 150,000 to 160,000 nationals who live in the states, many of them in California, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Utah and Alaska. 'We pay taxes, we do exactly the same as everybody else that are U.S. citizens,' Smith said. 'It would be nice for us to have the same rights as everybody here in the states.' Legal questions over status to be tested anew But many in American Samoa eventually soured on the idea, fearing that extending birthright citizenship would jeopardize its customs — including the territory's communal land laws. Island residents could be dispossessed by land privatization, not unlike what happened in Hawaii, said Siniva Bennett, board chair of the Samoa Pacific Development Corporation, a Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit. 'We've been able to maintain our culture, and we haven't been divested from our land like a lot of other indigenous people in the U.S.,' Bennett said. In 2021, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to extend automatic citizenship to those born in American Samoa, saying it would be wrong to force citizenship on those who don't want it. The Supreme Court declined to review the decision. Several jurisdictions across the country, including San Francisco and the District of Columbia, allow people who are not citizens to vote in certain local elections. Tafilisaunoa Toleafoa, with the Pacific Community of Alaska, said the situation has been so confusing that her organization reached out to the Alaska Division of Elections in 2021 and 2022 to ask whether American Samoans could vote in state and local elections. Neither time did it receive a direct answer, she said. 'People were telling our community that they can vote as long as you have your voter registration card and it was issued by the state,' she said. Finally, last year, Carol Beecher, the head of the state Division of Elections, sent Toleafoa's group a letter saying American Samoans are not eligible to vote in Alaska elections. But by then, the voting forms had been signed. 'It is my hope that this is a lesson learned, that the state of Alaska agrees that this could be something that we can administratively correct,' Toleafoa said. 'I would say that the state could have done that instead of prosecuting community members.' ___ Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska, and Johnson from Seattle. Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.
