Why is wealthy benefactor to the American Chestnut Association and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission District 9 Commissioner, Brad Stanback, intentionally disseminating misinformation to the public? Commissioner Stanback should know that, contrary to his claims, the black bear population in our mountains has not increased by 7%; by the latest data from 2021, the population has decreased. Dr. Joseph P. Clark, Branch Chief of the U.S. Geological Survey Southern Appalachian Field Branch, concluded that, “…increased harvest goals and poor hard mast production over a series of prior years reduced bear population abundance…” and the “harvest rate is at or approaching maximum sustainable yield.” Yet even with Clark’s density data they funded stating harvest rate was at or approaching max yield in 2021, the commission allowed an 11% increase in harvest from 2021 to 2022.
Attempts by the wildlife commission to open three bear sanctuaries to hunters and their dogs in 2022 failed, primarily because even regional bear hunters were against it on scientific grounds. As a consultant with Help Asheville Bears, I produced a video of a public meeting featuring District 9 biologist Justin McVey acknowledging he did not “understand the math” behind his recommendation to open the sanctuaries to hunters. This latest attempt by the commission to kill more bears to appease a tiny subset of the human population is based on the same intentionally fictive data.