TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Licensed Floridians will still be able to bag a bear in Florida later this month after a state judge Thursday refused to stop the planned hunt.
"The methodology that (Florida Fish and Wildlife officials) used in coming up with a rule is rational. It bears a relationship to the constitutional mandate," Leon Circuit Judge George Reynolds said.
Attorneys for several environmental groups looking to block the hunt, slated to begin Oct. 24, argued the killing of Florida's black bears would reverse its slowly recovering population, and that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission relied on old data to pass a rule allowing the hunt.
"The planned bear hunt could undermine decades of work to save Florida's iconic black bear from extinction. If the hunt goes forward as planned, there will be no way to turn back the clock and undo the irreparable damage to the bears," the groups' motion for the injunction states.
The legal challenge was filed by Speak Up Wekiva, a Central Florida-based environmental group, and joined by 11 other environmental and animal-rights groups.
FWC lawyers and witnesses countered they would not allow hunters to use baits or traps, hunters would be limited to one bear per person and only conservative estimates of bear populations were used.
The judge's decision means the hunt can go forward as planned, starting Oct. 24 and lasting for up to one week. The total number of bears allowed to be killed is 320, or about 10 percent of the estimated 3,000 black bears in Florida as of 2002.
For the environmental groups, that study is outdated, and the FWC should wait for the results of an ongoing bear population study set to be published next summer before moving forward with a hunt. Judge Reynolds seemed inclined to agree with that point but said it didn't carry enough legal muster for him to issue a temporary injunction to stop the hunt.
"It appears to me that the commission has a sufficient scientific basis. Could they have had a better one? Yes. But did they have a sufficient one? Yes," Reynolds said.
There have been 2,360 bear-hunt permits sold as of Thursday, according to testimony from Diane Eggman, FWC director of hunting and game management. The hunt will take place in four out of seven designated bear management units throughout the state, including in parts of Orange, Lake and Seminole counties.
FWC officials said they are prepared to step in and stop the hunt if the 320 quota is exceeded before the end of seven days, or shut it down in one area of the state if that area's specific quote is met. That was disputed by expert witnesses brought by the environmental groups, however, who doubted FWC officials would be able to contact hunters who might not have access to cellphones or Internet access while on the hunt.
The FWC passed the rule allowing the bear hunt during a meeting in Sarasota in June, despite objections from animal rights and environmental groups who said it is not needed.
Three women have been mauled by bears in Seminole County since December 2013. The state, which banned bear hunting in 1994, removed the animal from its threatened-species list in 2012.
"It looks like we have to me bears that have become accustomed and are living in suburban areas," said Dr. Thomas Eason, director of the FWC Division of Habitat and Species conservation.
For Eason, the hunt is a tool to stabilize Florida's black bear population, and the exact number of bears killed won't make the difference in whether it survives as a species in the state.
"If we don't quite reach (the quota), it's not the end of the world and if we exceed it it's not the end of the world. These bear populations are large and resilient," Eason said.