9 Investigates state, environmentalists at odds over bears and berries

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — As omnivores, Florida black bears eat everything from plants and insects to other animals. The black bear's diet includes the saw palmetto berry. For the last several years, Florida has been selling those berries to anyone willing to pay for a license to pick them up off of the forest floor.

The Florida black bear population is managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, however, the licenses for harvesting saw palmetto berries comes from the Florida Forest Service -- an agency that reports to the Florida Department of Agriculture. 

The Florida Forest Service has sold saw palmetto berries and other forest products for several years, using the money from the sale of licenses to augment the budget for managing state forests. The FFS issues special-use permits for the berries. The permits only allow the berries to be harvested in specific areas for a specific period of time. In recent years, demand for the berries has increased as the berries have been used in drugs for prostate health.

Slideshow: Bears roam Seminole County neighborhood

“A bear can eat a half-ton of saw palmetto berries in a three-month time period,” Chuck O'Neil, of the League of Women Voters, said. “We’re working against the bears and we’re also working against the people next door to the bears.”

Environmentalists like O’Neil say as the black bear population has rebounded in the last decade, demand by the bears for food has driven them out of their habitat and increasingly into the path of humans.

“It’s a huge part of their diet at a critical time in their life cycle,” says O’Neil.

But state officials stand by their decision.

“At this time FWC has no data to indicate that current saw palmetto berry harvest levels are having an adverse effect on Florida’s bear population,” wildlife biologist Sarah Barrett said.

While the state stands by the harvesting and the sale of licenses, it also prosecutes those caught poaching the berries.

According to records obtained by 9 Investigates, FWC has documented 340 violations of berry harvesting since 2003, with 34 violations in 2014.

WFTV