Oregon, 2026-27 season year

Oregon Bear Season 2026-27

Q: Who publishes guidance on living with bears in Oregon?

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, on its page titled Living with black bears, which is linked from the agency notice on this page. That page is the agency's own guidance for Oregon residents on attractants, encounters and who to call, and its sentence on fall activity is quoted verbatim beside the link, read on September 19, 2026.

Q: Where are the rest of the Oregon bear hunting rules?

At Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, whose regulations page is linked on this page. Those rules are legally binding, change annually and vary by zone and land ownership; the permit and tag system, zone maps, methods and reporting requirements are all published there. This page carries the season windows themselves, with the source page and read date attached.

Now that autumn weather has replaced hot summer days, bears have begun their annual fall eat-a-thon, known as hyperphagia, to prepare for winter.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

General Season Fall Black Bear: August 1, 2026 to December 31, 2026. People report black bears in Oregon most in June, and 33 percent of all reports fall in September, October and November. Everything below is Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s own words and dates, read on September 19, 2026, beside the record of what people reported.

This page covers the 2026-27 season year. Dates were read from the agency sources linked below, last checked September 19, 2026. Seasons change annually and agencies correct their own pages; confirm against the linked agency page before you hunt.

August 1, 2026 to December 31, 2026

General Season Fall Black Bear

published

No season

Archery bear season

no season

Not published yet

Controlled Spring Black Bear (700 series)

not yet published

June

Busiest reported month

1,679 reports on record

Fall activity

When black bears are most active in Oregon

ODFW says Oregon is home to about 25,000 to 30,000 black bears, North America's most common bear species, and that Oregon has just one species of bear. The department describes them as highly concentrated along the coast, in the Cascades, and in the Blue Mountains.

The bars count research grade American black bear observations people uploaded to iNaturalist for Oregon, by calendar month, across every year the platform holds. The busiest month in the record is June, and reports drop below 40 percent of that peak by November. The drop into winter reflects bears denning and fewer people outdoors in equal measure, which is why the agency’s sentences below, not the curve, carry the timing.

1,679 research grade American black bear observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Oregon across every year the platform holds, and 33 percent of them fall in the three shaded fall months. The busiest month in the record is June, and reports drop below 40 percent of that peak by November. These are counts of what people reported, so they measure observers as well as bears; they are not a population, not a survey and not a statement about this autumn. See the records on iNaturalist.

Research grade black bear reports uploaded for Oregon by year, 2016 to 2025: 9 in 2016 and 397 in 2025. Most of the climb is the platform itself growing, and every species on it shows the same shape, so this is a record of reporting rather than a population trend.

What Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says

Fall feeding

Now that autumn weather has replaced hot summer days, bears have begun their annual fall eat-a-thon, known as hyperphagia, to prepare for winter.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Denning

Typically bears begin emerging early March and become fully active around the first or second week of April.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

When conflicts and sightings rise

Most bear problems can be easily avoided by taking some appropriate precautions, especially in spring and fall.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

A young black bear resting its chin on a bare dead branch in a green hardwood forest, ears forward, looking at the camera — A young black bear on a dead limb in the hardwoods. In the eastern forests the fall feeding season runs on acorns and beechnuts, which is why the agency sentences quoted on these pages talk about hard mast and mast years. Photo: Courtney Celley, USFWS. “Black Bear (20083897724)”, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Public domain

Hunting dates

Oregon bear seasons, 2026-27

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife dates American black bear seasons under its own names, and each is below under that name with the zone rows exactly as the agency lists them, the source page linked beside each table, and the date it was read.

General Season Fall Black Bear

published

General Season Fall Black Bear is OPEN now, through December 31, 2026.

Oregon general season fall black bear, as published by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Zone	Opens	Closes	Notes
Statewide	August 1, 2026	December 31, 2026	Additional General Season Fall Tag runs the same window

Dates read from 2026 Oregon Big Game Hunting Regulations, Black Bear Seasons, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, accessed 2026-09-19.

Oregon's fall bear season is a single statewide general season, Aug. 1 through Dec. 31, printed as the Statewide Season on the Black Bear Seasons page of the 2026 regulations and repeated on the department's 2026 big game seasons page. Fall is the only general, over-the-counter bear season in Oregon.

Archery bear season

no season

Oregon holds no separately dated archery bear season. Oregon dates no separate archery bear season. The 2026 regulations list one statewide general fall season and the controlled 700 series spring hunts, and archery bear hunting happens inside those windows, which is a methods question for ODFW rather than a date. Source: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Controlled Spring Black Bear (700 series)

not yet published

Oregon spring bear season: not yet published as of September 19, 2026

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife had not posted these dates when this page was last checked. Oregon's spring bear hunting is controlled entry: the 2026 regulations list fourteen 700 series spring hunts plus five youth hunts, every one dated Apr. 1 to May 31, 2026, with applications due February 10. The Commission was scheduled to adopt the 2027 Big Game Regulations at its September 18, 2026 meeting in La Grande, and the 2027 regulations that will carry the spring 2027 hunt dates had not been posted as of September 19, 2026. They will appear first on the agency page linked below.

Watch for them at Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

The agency's own season sentence

Statewide Season: Aug. 1 - Dec. 31

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Current Oregon regulations

Permit and tag requirements, zone maps, permitted methods, tagging and reporting, and everything else a bear hunter is bound by for Oregon are set by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, are legally binding and change annually. Its current regulations page is linked here.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife: current regulations

A black bear track pressed into wet grey mud, five rounded toes in an arc above a broad pad, with a second fainter print beside it — A black bear track in mud in Shenandoah National Park. Tracks, scat, turned over logs and claw marks on smooth beech bark are the sign most people meet in the fall woods, weeks before they meet the bear. Photo: M. Punches, NPS. “Black Bear Track in Mud (44654784885)”, ShenandoahNPS, Public domain

Bear season in other states

Oregon deer seasonArchery, firearms, muzzleloader and youth deer windows for 2026-27, under the same sourcing rules.Oregon small game seasonPheasant, quail, grouse, rabbit and squirrel openers, read from the same agency.Oregon foraging calendarThe acorns, beechnuts and berries the agency names as fall bear food are the same mast a forager follows.

An adult black bear standing on a broken limb high in a hardwood tree above two small cubs, all three looking down — A mother black bear and two cubs of the year in a hardwood tree. The denning sentences quoted on the state pages describe when family groups like this one go to ground, and it moves by weeks between a Gulf Coast winter and a northern one. Photo: Courtney Celley, USFWS. “Black Bear Family (20083894064)”, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Public domain

Oregon bear season questions

When are black bears most active in Oregon in the fall?

In the observation record for Oregon, research grade black bear reports peak in June and 33 percent of all 1,679 reports fall in September, October and November. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife describes the fall feeding period in its own words, quoted on this page with a link to the page it came from. Reports count people as well as bears, so the shape of the curve is the useful part and the exact numbers are not.

When does bear season open in Oregon in 2026-27?

Does Oregon have a spring bear season in 2027?

Oregon holds a spring bear season, and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife had not published the 2027 dates as of September 19, 2026. Oregon's spring bear hunting is controlled entry: the 2026 regulations list fourteen 700 series spring hunts plus five youth hunts, every one dated Apr. 1 to May 31, 2026, with applications due February 10. The Commission was scheduled to adopt the 2027 Big Game Regulations at its September 18, 2026 meeting in La Grande, and the 2027 regulations that will carry the spring 2027 hunt dates had not been posted as of September 19, 2026. The dates will appear first on the agency page linked on this page.

When do black bears go into dens in Oregon?

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife describes the denning timing for Oregon in the sentence quoted on this page, read on September 19, 2026 from the page linked beside it. In the observation record, reports fall below 40 percent of the June peak by November and reach their low in January. That drop reflects bears denning and fewer people outdoors in equal measure, which is why the agency's sentence, not the curve, is the denning answer.

Are black bear sightings in Oregon increasing?

The number of research grade black bear reports uploaded for Oregon went from 9 in 2016 to 397 in 2025. Most of that rise is the platform itself growing, since every species on iNaturalist shows the same climb, so the year bars on this page are a record of reporting rather than a population trend. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife describes when sightings and conflicts rise in Oregon in the sentence quoted on this page.

Who publishes guidance on living with bears in Oregon?

Where are the rest of the Oregon bear hunting rules?

A brown wooden Bear Country sign with a white bear pictogram and a red band, on two posts at the edge of a lodgepole pine campground in low sun — A Bear Country sign at Indian Creek Campground, Yellowstone. The land manager writes the rules on the board, and they change by campground and by season: food storage orders, closed drainages, and whether a soft sided tent is allowed at all. “Bear Country Sign for Indian Creek (14457698423)”, Yellowstone National Park from Yellowstone NP, USA, Public domain

A snow covered track running between pines bent low under heavy snow, with a strip of blue sky above — Midwinter at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Maine. This is denning season in the north; each agency's own sentence on when its bears enter and leave their dens is quoted on the state pages, and the month bars show the reports thinning to match. “Winter at Moosehorn (11714166893)”, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast Region, Public domain

This page covers the 2026-27 season year with agency data read on September 19, 2026 and an iNaturalist record to September 19, 2026. Every sentence about bear behaviour is Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s own, quoted exactly with a link to its page; every season window is republished from the agency page linked beside it, and windows the agency had not yet published are labelled not yet published. The month bars count what members of the public reported and are not a population. See also the national bear season guide.