Paul Kirby reports in The Daily Freeman that fewer bears were killed during the 2018 hunting season in New York than during the year before. Hunters killed 1,295 black bears during the 2018 hunting season, about nine percent less than in 2017 the state Department of Environmental Conservation reported. In the Southern Zone, in the Catskills and Hudson Valley, 804 black bears were killed by hunters, 20 percent fewer than the year before. In the Adirondacks, hunters killed 28 percent more, 491. "Black bears continue to thrive in New York's exceptional bear habitat and the state's vast, accessible public lands offer great opportunities for bear hunting," state Environmental Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a prepared statement. "The black bear hunting season provides valuable tools and data for DEC's wildlife managers in their work to maintain healthy bear populations across the state." The story says, "The environmental department said the greatest "bear harvest density" last year occurred in an area that includes Ulster, Sullivan and Greene counties." Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.