Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is hosting four listening sessions around western Connecticut this month to collect feedback on the management of the state’s bear population.
“These facilitated discussions will be focused on bear activity, public safety concerns, and strategies for living safely with bears,” DEEP said in a release.
“Feedback from these sessions will inform the next phase of DEEP’s bear management planning, which includes the creation of a report that will describe the current state of the bear population in Connecticut, public perceptions toward bears, implications of the state’s growing bear population, and various strategies for mitigating bear-related impacts,” the department said.
Mason Trumble, deputy commissioner of environmental conservation at DEEP, says the sessions are meant for residents to share their thoughts on bears in their communities.
“We're really trying to understand the public's perception of bears in their neighborhood,” Trumble told Connecticut Public. “There's a wide spectrum of how the public views bears in Connecticut. Some folks are really glad seeing bears in their community, some folks are scared to see bears in their community, and everything in between.”
According to DEEP, incidents in which bears have entered homes in Connecticut have increased over the past six years.
“So far in 2025, DEEP has documented nearly 40 bear home entries across 16 municipalities,” the agency said in an October release. “By comparison, data shared with DEEP by the Massachusetts Department of Natural Resources documented only four bear-home entries in Massachusetts in 2024, despite Massachusetts having a much larger black bear population than Connecticut.”
Trumble said there are a number of factors that could be driving that disparity, including that Massachusetts allows the hunting of bears, while Connecticut does not.
A bill to legalize bear hunting in Connecticut failed to pass the General Assembly in the most recent legislative session.
“Here in New England, and really across the Northeast and the eastern seaboard, we're one of the only states that does not have a bear hunt,” Trumble said. “We've said for a long time that there are many, many tools to reducing human-bear conflicts, and a bear hunt is one of many that we need to employ.”
The listening sessions will be held in Sharon, Derby, Burlington, and West Hartford. Attendees need not reside in those towns. More information on the sessions and registration is available at DEEP’s website.
Attend a session
- Wednesday, December 3 | 6:00 to 7:30 pm – Sharon
Audubon, 325 Cornwall Bridge Rd, Sharon, CT 06069 - Thursday, December 4 | 6:00 to 7:30 pm – Derby
Kellogg Environmental Center, 500 Hawthorne Ave, Derby, CT 06418 - Wednesday December 10 | 6:00 to 7:30 pm – Burlington
Sessions Woods Wildlife Management Area, 341 Milford St, Burlington, CT 06013 - Tuesday, December 16 | 6:00 to 7:30 pm – West Hartford
Elmwood Community Center, 1106 New Britain Ave, West Hartford, CT 06110
