DNR Staff Report
Applications for this fall's bear hunt will be accepted through May 4 at any Minnesota Department of Natural Resources license agent and online at www.mndnr.gov/buyalicense.
They also are available at the DNR License Center in St. Paul or by phone at 888-665-4236.
A total of 6,000 licenses are available in 11 permit areas. This year's bear hunt will run from Sept. 1 to Oct. 14.
Hunters selected in the annual lottery must purchase their licenses by Aug. 1, so licenses that aren't purchased can be made available to other hunters. After this year's Aug. 1 deadline, any eligible hunter may purchase any remaining licenses starting at noon Aug. 6.
In 2011, hunters purchased 5,684 licenses by the deadline. Those hunters were chosen from a pool of 19,170 applicants for the available 7,050 permit area licenses. The remaining 1,336 permits were sold after the deadline passed. Hunters harvested a total of 2,131 bears.
Bear licenses cost $38 for residents and $200 for nonresidents. The bag limit is two bears in the no-quota area and one bear in all quota permit areas.
Complete information on the fall bear hunt is available on the DNR website at www.mndnr.gov/hunting/bear.
