CARSON CITY, NV -- The Nevada State Legislature is receiving a message, loud and clear.  Toby Stump, a Paiute from the Reno Sparks Indian Colony, wants to see lawmakers crack down on bear hunting laws in the state.  He, and about thirty fellow Native Americans in front of the legislature yesterday, were all pushing lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 82, which could end black bear hunting in Nevada.

Stump says bear hunting problems increase as the state’s population rises.  “You move into somewhere, you want to clean up and make it nice and cozy for yourself but then you gotta also adapt to what’s going on and what’s been there and right now the bears have been here,” says Stump.

Stump says the group’s goal is to end bear hunting completely, but finding a way to slow down the killings would be a good short term solution.  “How much do you need to hunt? Until it’s gone? Or maybe one every ten years? I don’t know,” says Stump. “To me, something needs to happen.”

Environmental group Sustainable Tahoe says there is a third option beyond protection and slaughter.  Executive Director Jacquie Chandler is meeting with senators and assemblymen inside the state capital to discuss a solution they think is best for people on both sides of the argument. “The tourism around viewing natural assets and native creatures is way more money than we're ever going to make killing and destroying them,” says Chandler.

Chandler believes attractions called ‘picture safaris,’ vacations centered on watching animals in the wild, boost any region’s economy immensely.  “Slaughtering of wild horses and the bears, that’s peanuts compared to the bigger money and they would destroy long term prosperity,” says Chandler. “I’m talking about long term profit that would be sustainable that would fill our hotels four seasons.”

Experts estimate animal viewing in British Colombia, where ‘picture safaris’ are popular, rakes in seven million dollars annually while hunting nets around two.