Forrest Fires / Bears / How Soon?

[Brian in Montana]

The only burn area I ever hunted with much intent was about 10 years old, but there were certainly black bears in there. We had a couple of pretty nasty fires right around here this past summer that kept burning well into September. Would they potentially have enough new growth this coming spring to put any serious effort into? This question has probably been posed before, but it's probably worth hashing out out every so often, especially after a summer like this last on here in Montana.

Spring is a busy time with work, family, baseball, and kids just doing 100 different things, so I plan on pretty focused bear hunts with the time I can scrape together for it. Don't want to waste a weekend on a burned out wasteland unless I think it might pay off.

 

[Caseknife]

Really depends on the intensity of the fire. Every fire leaves a patchwork of varied habitat. I would think that if we get a good winter, looking that way, there should be good new growth to draw in bears.