DEADLINE TOMORROW, SEPTEMBER 22nd at 11:59 PM!!!
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has opened applications for bear harvest permits for the proposed 2025 black bear hunting season. Applications are being accepted until September 22 at 11:59 p.m.
Here’s how it works: You must hold both a hunting license and a bear harvest permit. Permits will be awarded through a lottery system. Each application costs $5 plus fees, and individuals may submit multiple entries. A total of 172 permits (FWC recently reduced the total quota by 15 bears) will be issued through a random draw. If your name is drawn, you will be required to pay $100 (residents) or $300 (nonresidents) for the permit.
If you secure a permit, you can simply choose not to kill a bear. By holding the permit until the end of the season (December 6-28, 2025) and then returning it unused, you directly prevent a bear from being hunted and killed. Every permit in the hands of someone who refuses to kill a bear is a life saved.
Applications can be submitted at GoOutdoorsFlorida.com by logging in and selecting “Apply for Limited Entry/Quota Permits.” Additional information is available at MyFWC.com/License and MyFWC.com/BearHunting.
Click here to download our step-by-step guide.
Watch this video for step-by-step instructions.
Some have raised concerns that purchasing hunting licenses and bear lottery entries to save individual bears could backfire, arguing that if the quota is not met this year, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will simply raise it in the future. If that scenario unfolds, we will meet it with equal resolve by expanding our participation in subsequent years.
What is indisputable is this: Floridians, including many hunters, overwhelmingly oppose a black bear hunt. FWC’s own surveys confirm that a majority of its stakeholders reject the idea. Yet, in direct disregard of both science and public sentiment, the Commissioners advanced this hunt.
This is not a hunt grounded in science or necessity. During FWC’s virtual public meeting, staff member Morgan Richardson openly acknowledged that the purpose of the hunt was not to control bear populations but rather to provide an “opportunity” to kill a bear.
The facts are clear: non-hunters contribute more to conservation than hunters ever will. Much of the confusion around hunter contributions stems from the Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937 (the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act), which established an excise tax on the sale of firearms, ammunition, and specific hunting equipment. While hunters often claim this as evidence of their outsized role in conservation, the reality is different. Today, the vast majority of firearms and ammunition in the United States are purchased for purposes unrelated to hunting, such as personal protection, sport shooting, or collecting. This means that non-hunters, often unknowingly, are the primary contributors to the funds generated by the Pittman-Robertson Act.
In effect, the public at large shoulders the responsibility for wildlife conservation, while a small minority of hunters take disproportionate credit. In Florida, hunters represent barely one percent of the population, and their contributions are contingent on the sale of hunting licenses, a process that non-hunters are now entering in order to save bears from being killed. By contrast, the overwhelming majority of Floridians, who neither hunt nor support this unnecessary killing, fund conservation through general taxes, park fees, eco-tourism, and voluntary contributions.
The FWC has disregarded science, ignored its stakeholders, and prioritized the trophy killing of a species that should be protected. The FWC has undermined its mission and betrayed the trust of the public it is charged to serve and the wildlife it is charged to protect.
Thank you for taking action to protect Florida's black bears.