A bill that calls for the state to study black bears advanced at the capitol Wednesday.
H.B. 1304 instructs Colorado Parks and Wildlife to study the management of black bearsin the state. They are they only known species of bear still found in Colorado.
Republican Representative Yeulin Willett of Grand Junction is co-sponsoring the measure.
He says the purpose of the bill is to find ways to reduce bear-human conflicts and deal with the 'over populations of black bears in certain areas'.
"So we’ve got to do something in my view," Willett says. "We’ve had a couple of maulings and a couple of deaths."
He says parks and wildlife would report the findings of the study to the legislature.
The bill won unanimous support in committee and now heads to the House floor for debate.
Willett also sponsored a separate measure that called for expanding the bear hunting season to help deal with overpopulation. That bill died in committee.
Parks and wildlife estimates there are between 15,000 and 25,000 black bears in Colorado. Wildlife officials says its difficult to get an accurate count of the population.
