There are twenty-nine states, eight Canadian provinces and Mexico with record-book entries for the common American black bear. In a previous “Trophy Search” column I revealed the trophy destinations from Boone & Crockett historical records for black bear from the Upper Midwest. In this installment, I’ll look more closely at the states and provinces that make up the West Coast.

For this geographic region the state of Alaska reigns supreme and is ranked third in overall total number of record-book entries (168) behind Wisconsin (301) and Pennsylvania (188). Since Alaska is not subdivided by county like the lower forty-eight states, harvest locations are tracked by the nearest landmass. In the case of Alaska and black bear locations, islands, bays and major river drainages are listed. Four out of the top five locations in Alaska are islands, with Prince of Wales recording the most entries for the state (88).

Traveling down the coast, one would think the heavily forested regions of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon would follow Alaska, but California actually ranks second on the West Coast and seventh for all states or provinces, with eighty-two entries. Following California in total entries on the West Coast are, in order, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon.

Assumptions
When ranking by county within a state it is easy to draw a correlation between habitat and trophy potential. All of the locations (British Columbia) and counties for California, Washington and Oregon are heavily forested and located along the Cascade coastal mountain range.

Here, decades of timber harvest have opened the dense forest canopy, allowing sunlight to reach an otherwise stark habitat. The resulting regrowth has been a boon for blacktail deer and Roosevelt’s elk as well as the black bear, which includes the young of both species in its diet.

In Alaska, some, but not all, of the black bear populations benefit from protein-rich salmon, as does their larger cousin the brown bear. Salmon equals big bears, and when you combine the bonus tidewater foraging of kelp and crabs with inland salmon and dense, inaccessible island habitats, the results are lightly hunted bears growing to record-book size.

Interestingly, the overall state or location ranking remains relatively unchanged when comparing all-time entries (1830-2007) with the record-book entries in just the past ten years. This is not the case with other species like mule deer, American elk and pronghorn, where the total number of entries can shift over time and change the order of rankings. Even more interesting is the situation with Oregon and Washington, which banned the use of bear hunting with bait and hounds--Oregon in 1994 and Washington in 1996. One would think that this limiting factor in hunter success would negatively affect trophy entries. On the contrary, record-book bears from both states are on the increase since these bans, even with lower participation and spot-and-stalk hunter success rates.

Conclusions
Every black bear population has the potential for record-book specimens. In the East, where winters are mild and true hibernation is nonexistent, bears feed yearlong to gain their size. On the West Coast, high-quality (and quantity) food supplies along with dense habitat allow bears to pack on the pounds and age. Both are things to look for when choosing a trophy destination for your next, or first, black bear hunt.