NC bears have been afforded a temporary reprieve. The RRC received over 439 pages worth of objection letters requesting a legislative review. At last month's Rules Review Commission (RRC) meeting, the commission objected to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission's rule that would have opened up bear hunting in the Pisgah, Panthertown-Bonas Defeat, and Standing Indian Bear Sanctuaries starting this year (2022).

After Thursday's (May 19th) RRC meeting, rule 15A NCAC 10D .0106 - Bear Sanctuaries has officially been submitted for legislative review and will be presented during the 2023 legislative session. When next year's session starts, legislators will have 30 days to introduce a bill to disapprove the NCWRC's rule. If no bill is introduced by the 31st, the rule will automatically go into effect. We must let legislators know that we do not want bear hunting in the three bear sanctuaries and urge them to write a bill opposing the rule. We will be posting a new call-to-action next week so stay tuned.

Thank you to everyone that fought hard to stop this and took the time to complete all of the calls to action. The fight is not over, but we just took a big step forward.