Watch | ‘Lawmakers Reintroduce Bill to Allow Bear Hunting in Connecticut’ (NBC CT)

From NBC Connecticut:

State lawmakers are reintroducing several bills to help contain the state’s growing bear population.

“I think it’s time for us to do something to control the population,” Watertown Sen. Eric Berthel said. “I think there’s more of an appetite to that this session than there was in the past.”

Berthel said he’s been working on legislation around bear control for 11 years and reintroduced a bill which would allow bear hunting in Litchfield County.

“You’d have to have a license for this,” Berthel said. “You’d have to report the hunting and killing of a bear back to DEEP and they would compile that data and ultimately be able to tell us whether or not this is working.”

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) estimates the state has between 1,000 and 1,200 bears and Deputy Commissioner Mason Trumble said DEEP supports a bear hunt bill.

“Most of the bears in Connecticut are located in the western part of the state,” Trumble said. “Although we have had reported sightings of black bears in all 169 towns here in Connecticut.”

According to DEEP, in 2024, there were over 3,000 human-bear conflicts. These conflicts include aggressive encounters with bears, bears entering houses, cars or garages, bears eating from trash cans and more.

Last year, bears entering homes accounted for 67 instances of human-bear conflicts.

“The number one advice that we can recommend and we encourage everyone in the state to do is don’t let bears access food from humans,” Trumble said.

Nicole Rivard from Friends of Animals opposes the bill and said it’s not needed. She said hunting or killing a bear would not lead to the solution the state is looking for.

“Bears are an important part of the ecosystem and that’s why we feel they should be protected,” she said. “We should be doing everything we can to protect wildlife.”