Talk:Louisiana black bear

The Louisiana black bear (Ursus americanus luteolus) is one of the 16 subspecies of the American black bear described as such. The Louisiana bear once ranged over all of Louisiana, the southern 2/3 of Mississippi, southern Arkansas, and east Texas. Considerable habitat alterations, primarily conversion of the bottomland hardwood ecosystem to row crop agriculture, brought the Louisiana black bear population to dangerously low levels by 1990. That led to the subsequent listing of the bear as "threatened" by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in January 1992.

The decline in bears in the lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley can be attributed to human disturbance that included habitat loss, unregulated harvest, lack of management, and neglect. Because of largely government subsidized land clearing for agriculture, the original 24 million acres of bottomland hardwood forest in the alluvial valley was reduced to less than 5 million acres by 1980.

Considerable habitat restoration initiatives including USDA Farm Bill Conservation programs, carbon sequestration projects, and other conservation programs focused on the planting of hardwood tree species, have led to an increase of over 1 million acres of forest since 1992. While budget cuts threaten to slow this process, private dollars seem to be providing additional support and keep the habitat initiatives viable.

A broad coalition of diverse interests, the Black Bear Conservation Coalition, has been working to reverse those factors that led to the decline in bear numbers since late 1990. Working with state and federal agencies, universities, industry and landowners, the population of the Louisiana black bear appears to be experiencing a strong rebound.

Validity as subspecies

The validity of the Louisiana black bear as a subspecies is certainly embroiled in controversy. I will be expanding the article to cover this in the near future, but "anyone can help". Otr500 (talk) 10:02, 16 March 2017 (UTC)