Diary of a Wisconsin Bear Guide...Bear Numbers Overwhelming
By Mike Foss
Finally, great weather to put up more stands and bait. While baiting, my mind was searching for the right word I could use to describe the number of bears we have here in northern Bayfield County and the state of Wisconsin. Initially, nothing I came up with seemed to give the roaming population that we are seeing in the field justice.
Wisconsin Bear Guide Mike Foss baits another station. Northern Wisconsin Outfitters has expanded its territory in 2012 to include 4000 exclusive acres on private land as well as established baits on unbroken forests on public and private land over 30 square miles in Superior country.
While baiting, I stopped to take a break and visited the local Ag store; White River Ag Products near Mason, Wisconsin to shoot the bull with the local farmers. Once I walked in, talk shifted to bears and the destruction they will cause on the crops, mostly corn fields.
In 2012, this agricultural farmland bear baiting and hunting is new to me. Over the many years, Northern Wisconsin Outfitters baits the big woods for bears and that of course is where our clients hunt. With access this year to over 4000 acres of new territory on agricultural lands in addition to our stands in the unbroken forests to place baits on, my learning curve would be demanding. I think am catching on quite well.
Have you ever seen the damage a bear does in a corn field? Wow! I would have never known. From the crop damage that is almost too much to describe, to the frequency of our bait stations being hit, to actual frequent siting almost every time we take the field, it hit me; the word to describe the number of bears roaming our state is "infestation". We have an infestation of black bears in Wisconsin, not just localized areas but the entire northern half of the state. I don't think most Wisconsinites realize the over-population problems and damage that is occurring but it’s staggering. Bears are pushing south too. Southerners beware; it might not be the neighbor’s black lab you’re looking at.
Remember Peyton Hamm, our youth hunter spotlighted in our diary last week who helped NWO set stands and his own bear bait station that he will be hunting this September? It took just 14 hours for the first bear to find his bait pit. Peyton was excited to see the pictures.
Guide Mike Foss calls the number of bears roaming northern Wisconsin an ‘infestation’. It took this bear just 14 hours to find a new bait station established last week.
I don't know if it’s just in certain areas or far-reaching, but I have been noticing small acorns dropping already and the wild apple trees have very few apples on them. Talk next week. Enjoy the great outdoors.