BATON ROUGE - Louisiana Humane Society President Jeff Forson often acts as a voice for the voiceless. In this case, it's the Louisiana black bear.

"We've been involved with protecting the Louisiana black bear for over 20 years. We actually introduced and passed a bill that created the 'Save the Black Bear' license plate," said Dorson.

Since being placed on the threatened species list in 1992, the Louisiana black bear population has gone from fewer than 400 to an estimated 1200.

"People are encountering them more and seeing them more and places where you never saw a bear, you may can go and maybe see four, five or six," said the state's large carnivore program manager, John Hanks.

In the last couple of years, black bears have been popping up around the Capital Area, including North Baton Rouge, Port Allen and Maringouin.

"Bears are a nuisance in some places--they're expanding their range, they're showing up in new places. We're providing opportunity to our sportsmen and our landowners who have helped get these bears to this point," said Hanks.

However, hunting will be limited to the northeast part of the state where the population is the densest.

"We have to learn to live with nature, not always have to kill it to appreciate it," said Dorson.

He wants the state to teach the public how to live harmoniously with the animals instead of having a hunting season--and nearly 8000 people agree, as they've signed his petition to stop it.

Despite the support, Dorson knows it won't do much to change things.

"It looks like there's a whole lot of support for it, has been for years. We're in the minority...but it's important that we still exercise our right to oppose things we feel passionate about."