Anyone with experience in this? It has not happened yet but I'm curious what the grey area is like.
We live in a rural area, 2 acres that buts up against properties on the other side of a small valley that probably total another 20-30 acres that is not ours, but is cut off from the property owners by a creek, so it goes completely undeveloped. The bottom of our property is separated by those patches of property by an old logging road that's overgrown and is basically just a dirt trail.
I put up a trail cam when we started hearing more coyote hanging out on the trail. So far I have caught a ton of coyote but recently started catching several black bear on the trail. Male and female.
The upper 1/3 of our property is fenced in, and inside the fenced back yard we have a decent sized chicken coop that is fully fenced.
If I were to catch the bear approaching the fenced back yard area but it has not entered the fence itself, can I shoot it just by virtue of being on the property and having livestock?
I understand that if I shoot a bear I am legally obligated to contact WDFW. My main concern is if they would say that since the bear was not actively damaging property, but only posing a potential threat, it may not be a good shoot.