FRANKLIN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE SHERIFF A.J. SMITH 270 State Road 65 * Eastpoint, Florida 32328 Phone: 850-670-8500 * Fax: 850-670-8566 www.franklinsheriff.com — Septetnber21, 2023 Office of Governor Ron DeSantis State of Florida, The Capitol 400 S. Monroe St. Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001 Governor DeSantis, Oni September 3,,2023, we received a report from a female who was awoken by someone or something breaking into her home. To her utter surprise, panic, and guttural fear it was a large black bear. She reported that she ran terrified for her safety and locked herself in the bedroom, as the bear destroyed multiple rooms in her home. Just this morning, we received another call that an individual female from Carrabelle encountered a large black bear and she was chased to her car. She was.able to ‘lock herself in the car but was obviously seriously threatened for her wellbeing. Governor, the calls keep coming! 1 am writing to you today to file my strongest objection to the mismanagement and incident response by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) regarding the bear ‘management plan within the East Panhandle Bear Management Unit (EPBMU). This county and the citizens that I serve are being inundated and overrun by the bear population in this county. ‘There are senior citizens, mothers with small children, and families with live-stock and pets that are afraid to utilize the private and public lands of this county. Thave reviewed the statewide plan and the statistical bear encounter overview of EPBMU. First, this Bear Management plan (190 plus pages) was written by subject matter policy experts to FWC field and operations staff that all have the same ideology, not for the practical use of citizens. The education and public outreach components of the plan are important for bear ecosystem management but fail miserably with practical citizen well-being, public safety, and best practice response management. We have had 43 citizen/bear dispatched calls to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office this year. I have received no communication debrief or response management strategies from the members of FWC responsible for this unit. 1 am asking you to convene an immediate meeting with the FWC Commissioner Chair and Executive Director to meet with me and my Executive staff to address this issue, Sincerely, Sheriff A.J. “Tony” Si