The State - News from July 28, 1987

Environmentalists protested the legal shooting of black bears by federal trappers in Humboldt and Del Norte counties, saying alternatives to the killings are not being properly considered. The California Department of Fish and Game issues kill permits to owners of timber acreage after inspecting the damage done to redwood trees by bears that strip the bark and eat the sweet layer of new growth underneath. But federal trapper Curt Mullins, supervisor of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s animal damage-control unit in Eureka, said one company--whose name he declined to give--decided against hunting bears this year because of lawsuits and protest demonstrations from environmentalists.