Summary:
After describing the practice and effects of bear baiting, the article recounts the USFS's reluctant and haphazard attempts to develop a national policy on bear baiting, and the resulting legal challenges. The authors examine the scope of USFS authority to regulate human activities in the national forests, particularly with regard to actions impacting wildlife, then analyze the USFS's recent proposed "national policy" on bear baiting. Finally, the authors will explain why the USFS should apply the same management principles and standards to controversial 'hunting" practices, such as bear baiting, as it does to other uses of the nation's forests which have environmental impacts and interfere with the use and enjoyment of the forests by other users.
Documents:
Forest Service's Bait and Switch.pdf (2.4 MB)