"A statewide record was set in 2003 with the mountain and coastal harvests combined," Jones said. "I think we could see that again. But there's more potential for increased harvest in mountains than on the coast. We've probably peaked at the coast, with harvest numbers in the range of 1,000 to 1,100. While there's a little bit of room for growth in the coastal harvest, in the mountains, we only harvested 11 percent of the bears and I think we could sustain the same 15 percent harvest rate we do on the coast. The population is estimated at 7,000 at the coast and 4,000 in the mountains. There's a static number of bear hunters in the mountains, but the mountain harvest needs to be increased because that's where 80 percent of complaints occur."

The most bear complaints come from the far western counties in District 9. Urban sprawl around Asheville touches bear habitat. Bears overturn garbage cans, batter bird feeders and raid pet bowls left outside. At the coast, bear habitat does not butt right up against big cities.

Jones predicted the high bear harvests in the mountains in 2003 because of a poor mast year. Poor mast years in 1992, 1997 and 2003 all caused an increase in hunter success.

"We were able to predict those high bear harvests by our mast survey which is done in September," he said. "The bears are roaming around trying to find food. If the oaks fail, that alone probably drives the spikes in the harvest.

"In some states if they have a mast failure, they have a decrease in harvest. But they have a bigger still-hunting contingent than we do and take advantage of bear concentrations near food sources. Time of the season also has an impact. We have a protocol developed by some foresters and tree experts that allows us to count the number of acorns on trees along the same routes every year. There's a lot of bear information on the Web site and we try to get the mast survey on the Web site in October. Since the survey is done in September, it's a tight time frame. We also get calls from the media and the mast survey results are printed in the newspapers. But a lot of good hunters know as soon as we know if it's a good year or bad year."

In something of an eye-opener, the 2003 mountain bear harvest was 56 percent on game lands in the mountains and 44 percent on private lands. In 2004, the harvest was 67 percent on game lands in the mountains, which is more in line with the past.

"I think bears are just expanding their range," Jones said. "In 2000, it was 50.3 from private and 49.7 from game lands, the first time the private land harvest exceeded the harvest from game lands. Most years, it is about 67 percent from game lands."

"In 2001, game land harvest dropped to 63 percent. In 2002, it was 53 percent. Anytime you approach 50 percent, it's getting pretty significant. The point is bears are expanding in all of those areas. We've seen the mountain harvest go up since 1976. Over the last three decades, there's been a general upward trend on both game lands and private lands, with a faster rise on private lands. There were not any new lands opening during that time period. We only opened up one area in Alleghany and Wilkes a few years ago and that would increase the total harvest by over a couple of bears."

NEW (AND TRADITONAL) HUNTING OPPORTUNITIES
New for this season, the commission is moving the bear hunting season boundary in the mountain region from where it is now along the edge of the foothills west of a boundary formed by beginning at Highway 113 at the Virginia line down Highway 18 to the South Carolina line. The new "bear line" begins at I-77 at the Virginia line to I-40, than along Highway 18 to the South Carolina line. This is a significant increase in the amount of hunting area for mountain hunters.