Cumberland Times-News

Outdoors

October 27, 2012

Farmer tired of feeding Md. bears his expensive corn

Cumberland Times-News

Dear Mike,

This letter is to all interested people and to the experts that designed the format for the bear hunt, and the way the money from the bear hunt permits is spent.

But, of course, there are those people who do not have the bears in their vicinity doing damage to their crops, gardens, or perhaps beehives

Last year my family planted 50 acres of corn.

A bag of corn costs $130 (a bag of corn plants 2.5 acres), which amounts to $2,600 to plant 50 acres.

Add in the cost of fertilizer at $500 a ton, which takes six tons to plant 50 acres.

Then add in the price of fuel at $3.70 a gallon. We use about 400 gallons.

Now, let’s add all this together: $2,600 for seed corn, $3,000 for fertilizer, $1,480 for fuel, plus the cost of parts repair and our time and labor.

But this is just for planting, not including the cost for spraying and harvesting

What I’m trying to impress on you is that those in charge of the bear hunt and the people that do not want the beautiful bears killed is the reality that the State of Maryland had 4,027 applicants at $15 a permit, which means there was $60,405 collected.

Now the state wants to donate $1,675 for reimbursement to the farmer for crop damage caused by the bears.

Last year we had excessive crop damage caused by the bears.

We requested the DNR to estimate the damage. DNR determined there was over $5,000 damage.

But what we received was 21 percent of $5,000, which was $1,050.

They are really nice to give so much back to the farmers.

But, what do they care? No money out of their pockets.

DNR needs to come up with a better plan on the bear hunt and a better way to pay for the damage the bears cause.

I know that their answer would be to let the ones that received the bear permits to hunt on the farm land where there is damage.

But, there is a lot to be considered when doing that.

Most landowners do not like to have hunters on their property because of insurance risks, etc.

We are some of those landowners.

We pay the taxes, take care of the land, so that is not the answer to the problem.

One solution would be, 1) let the farmers have crop damage permits without cost, 2) have an open 3-4 day hunt, and charge $30 per person for each person to hunt.

Then allow $15 to DNR and $15 to go to the farmers for damage.

Therefore the farmers would receive half of the total of the amount collected for the permits to cover some of the damage caused by the bear consumption.

But they could always trap the bears and take them downstate, like to Washington, D.C. for them to enjoy the cute, beautiful bears.

Then most Iikely the hunt would be changed in a hurry. But, all I know is that we are getting tired of paying for a problem that we do not need or deserve.

Mark Beachy

Barton

Text Only
Outdoors
  • BRIAN EYLER Fewer W. Md. fawns survive

    It’s true. Based upon a variety of monitoring techniques, what the Maryland Wildlife & Heritage Service calls fawn recruitment is declining.

    June 15, 2013 2 Photos

  • JASON BENNETT BW Chunky gobbler

    June 15, 2013 1 Photo

  • Use of Pa. rifle range turns costly

    A Pittsburgh man has been fined $1,100 after he presented a wildlife conservation officer with a phony shooting-range permit he could have bought legitimately for $30.

    June 15, 2013

  • Bears killed to increase Alaskan moose survival

    Wildlife biologists from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently killed almost 90 bears and delivered nearly four tons of bear meat to residents in eight villages in western interior Alaska as part of a predator control program designed to increase the number of moose in the area.

    June 15, 2013

  • Facebook photos incriminating

    The SunSentinel reports that an anonymous complaint about Facebook photos showing harvested wild turkeys ended with charges being filed against four men, Travis Clayton McFatter, 27, Blake Dalton King, 20,  Zachary David Espenship, 20, all of Lake City, and Dustin Wayne Parrish, 26, of Lulu, for hunting violations, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

    June 15, 2013

  • Bear Watch - 06/16/2013

    The number of bears killed on Maryland highways during 2013 has risen to 12, according to an unofficial count maintained by the Cumberland Times-News.

    June 15, 2013

  • 34,000 red spruce planted in W.Va.

    The Nature Conservancy completed a major restoration project in the high-elevation forest of West Virginia’s Randolph County this month, planting 34,000 red spruce trees on land that is now part of the Monongahela National Forest, the group said.

    June 15, 2013

  • Big W.Va. fish landed

    The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources reports that the following anglers have caught trophy fish.

    June 15, 2013

  • Utah may add some mountain goats

    The Utah Wildlife Board ruled recently that mountain goats could become a part of the high-elevation ecosystem of the La Sal Mountains east of Moab, but there is work to be done before that happens.

    June 15, 2013

  • MIKE SAWYERS W.Va. solons to study crossbows, gobbler opener

    Committees in the West Virginia House and the Senate are going to officially study whether or not to allow general use of crossbows for deer hunting and the possibility of opening spring gobbler season one week earlier.

    June 8, 2013 1 Photo