Bear Convention

“There was a bear in my neighborhood again. Two girls that are friends of my girls were playing at their swingset in their backyard, when their Dad, who works at home, heard them screaming. The bear was 7 foot tall and ran away before the police could arrive; the girls were not injured. I was driving by on my way to the grocery store today when I saw my neighbor talking to the cop, and I stopped for the story. We now have to keep our doors closed (no screen doors) and our garage doors closed whenever possible.

There have been so many bear sightings this year. It really is time to bring back hunting in the nearby state forests. I don't get it, last year and this year have had plenty of rain, why would the bears be venturing away from the wildernesses so much this year?”

“They got used to the free garbage can food when it was dry?

If there are a very limited number of permits issued to hunt bear I bet the forest service could get rich selling them and the bears might start to be afraid of people again.”

“Mary, you are probably right, we have our garbage collected once a week around 11:00AM, and no one has bear-proof garbage containers. I guess we need to have a neighborhood meeting. What do other people use for bear-proof containers?”

“BEAR-PROOF

The enclosures aren't cheap - $500 and up. I doubt many people would do it unless there were a law and/or grant money available.”

“Thanks for the link, I tried to copy the letter to a word document to hand out to the neighborhood, but my system locked up. I'll try again later.”

“I thought this was a thread about wino's at a lonely hearts club.”

“Ding Ding Ding, once again, you thought wrong.”

“What do you know, one just showed up.”

“Showed you up, that is.”

“Can you boys take your fight outside please, you are really trashing the place. Give your emails to each other and have at it.”

“LyndyS,

They had to live trap a bear in my sister's yard 4 years ago. She lives across the street from me. We see them on the roads ocassionally and we have bear hunting in the state parks up here.

Permits are hard to get. It's a lottery. I know a guy who has applied for the last 12 years and has gotten a total of 4 permits. My backpacking buddy applied this year for the first time and didn't get one.

Be sure and teach your children how to act when they see a black bear. I spent 5 years of my childhood next to the Porcupine Mnts (bear country). We'd see them in our yard ocassionally. We never had a mishap.”

“Let's see...cut down forest for a development of crackerbox houses, maybe leave some forest as a "greenbelt" for the natural beauty. Then when bears come down out of the forest into the development proclaim that something needs to be done about the animals. Sorry, but no sympathy from me on that (OK, well some sympathy for the bears).

How large is the nearby forest land? What's the bear popluation? What's the range of this type of bear? Do these things match up? I'm betting there's not enough forest for the bears. Thanks, developers.

I don't mean to be insesnitive, LyndyS, but I grew up in an area surrounded by forest, yes one of those developments where land was cleared for the houses, and forest land was left for the "woodsy" feel. We had cougars, deer, racoons, opossum, and even bear in our neighborhood, and yards. Now I watch the land being cleared for more of these suburban developments, then the residents are surprised to see bears and cougars in their yard. What did they think lived in the woods before!

I'd like to see the encounters between homeowners and wild animals decrease, but as long as the habitats are being reduced in size, it's not going to happen. The animals have learned to live with the presence of humans, maybe humans need to learn to live with the presence and close proximity of the animals. Buy the bearproof trash containers, or rig something up if you need to. Watch your kids in the yard.”

“SARboy, the state letter mentions that there were 50 bears in northwestern NJ in 1980, and now there are 1000 bears, so I don't think my house displaced a bear home. Maybe construction in PA is sending bears into northwestern NJ. I prefer to live in the country with wildlife. I also think hunting to maintain populations of bear, deer, beaver, etc. is important. Too many animals or aggressive animals is as bad as too many people or aggressive people.”

“Maybe there are too many people, not animals. I say let the bears munch a few. No people, no problem.

Oh, and look out for them Beaver, I hear they can get REAL nasty.”

“That jump from 50 to 1000 bears is interesting. Here in Michigan, bears are increasing in number and range - a good thing, I think.

I wonder if some of our eastern forests are returning to a more natural state. 100 to 150 years ago, all the trees were cut. Now, some of these areas are returning to old growth (200+ years).

I would imagine that as some of these forests recover, the animal populations would, too.

I'd also guess that hunting increases, rather than decreases animal population. It creates economic incentive to maintain habitat and lessens the boom-bust cycle in wildlife population.

Of course, I'm just guessing. Any thoughts?”

“I don't know enough about the ecology, but the woods in NJ are not very old. The ash,oak and poplar trees are maybe 80 feet tall in the woods around my neighborhood, which I was told meant they were maybe 70 years old? Your idea of early farm fields becoming older forest over the last 20 years is interesting.”

“Beaver do attack, actually. A decade ago I covered a case in the U.P., up in the Keeweenaw Peninsula, near Sunshine, where a woman taking a rest break on the side of the highway was jumped by a large beaver and bitten in the @ss (no lie). She got stitches at the hospital and the sheriff went looking for the animal, but no luck. Those are big teeth, and beaver do get quite large.

BTW, despite all the warnings a tourist out in Custer State Park, S.D., got gored to death by a bison bull the other day. The bull split off from a herd some tourists were photographing and everyone else returned to their vehicles except this guy in his 70s. Who has to go all the way to Pamplona to be an idiot and run with the bulls? But of course, somebody will blame the bison.”

“pekka, I wasn't sure what ChinaChas meant by his beaver comment. I mentioned beaver because I read that the increase in giardia in pristine mountain streams is due to a big increase in beaver population in recent years. I don't know if this is true, but when I was a kid we drank from any rushing mountain stream with no problems. Now we have parasites and viruses.”

“Jeez, then let's just kill all the critters then. Heck, chop down all those pesky bug infested trees too. Oh, and we better all just stay indoors lest we breath the air or get that nasty sunshine on us.

We should all live in a nice sterile environment and not worry about getting sick or eaten.

PAVE THE EARTH!

(Give me a break. . . Please!)”

“There is something is the TT air, for sure!”

“"...get that nasty sunshine on us."

Hey, I've met Sunshine. She's very pleasant.”

“Good point RL.
Personally, I'm hping to stay indoors and have Sunshine get nasty on me.”

“Good point RL.
Personally, I'm hoping to stay indoors and have Sunshine get nasty on me.”

“oops didn't know it sent as I corrected the typo (I guess I was already losing my cool).”

“The police told my neighbor that they don't do anything about the bears unless they do something dangerous/aggressive. Then they kill them. I was surprised, because I thought they would tranquilize them and move them to the big state parks. Nope. I was told by another neighbor that they were living in the woods on the far west side of town for decades, and due to construction there, they are being displaced. I've lived here for 17 years and never heard of bear activity until the last four years.

Anyway the neighbors are all freaked out. Don't want the kids to play outside unaccompanied, etc. No one seems to want to actually learn about bear behavior or teach their kids. I've have not heard of bears attacking kids or adults in the east coast unless they were carrying, wearing or holding food. What does everyone know about bears actually attacking kids playing in their yards? Has it happened?”

“Violin, I deleted all the files in my internet temporary file folder and rebooted. Now I can look at the site you linked and the brochures without locking up. I don't know if that is a coincidence or what, but I see that the state confirms that habitat is increasing as forests mature and bear populations are growing as a result. There appears that there has been no bear hunting in the state since 1971. They claim to have a big bear education campaign over the last two years, but I had heard nothing in my town. I got the brochure when I visited Stokes.”

“The 'one strike and you're out' policy was only adopted this year after the state backed off on resuming a hunt.

I grew up in Hunterdon Co. and we only saw bears when they were passing through - pushed out by mama or young males moved by older ones looking for mates. Now in a state that some estimate could hold maybe 400 bears, we have 1,100 or so. Of course some are going to be pushed into residential areas - not their preferred habitat. If they get habituated to eating garbage, a hunt will do no good because these bears will be living in suburbia, not the semi-rural areas were hunting is allowed.

People on the fringes of development have to keep from feeding them and we need to reduce the population.”

“So we are back to the education issue. When school opens up again I will speak to the principle about an assembly. I don't know what the reaction will be. I was surprised that my neighbors felt that education would encourage their kids to seek out the bears. A tired rerun of drug or sex education arguements”

“That's funny.

The lure of forbidden bears.”

“The germ of a Far Side cartoon.”

“Sadly, there is no more Far Side. But speaking of comics...







”

“Yeah, yeah, as long as they throw the kids back (State Fish and Game rules: <60" ,throw them back)”

“Hey that man rug looks like one of my neighbors!”

“Hey Lyndys -

See these?

State tries to put lid on bears in trash (Star Ledger)

NJDEP Survey”

“Thanks Violin. We are having the neighborhood meeting tonight, and I am handing out brochures. We still have neighbors putting out plastic garbage bags instead of cans. Education is really needed. The reality is that most of these people have $35,000 cars and can afford whatever is necessary. I have to say that that bear story at the boy scout camp in Colorado was scary.”

“You mean their housekeepers have $35,000 cars, don't you.”

“Sing along to
The Teddy Bear's Picnic


If you go down to the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise
If you go down to the woods today
You'd better go in disguise

For ev'ry bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.

Ev'ry Teddy Bear who's been good
Is sure of a treat today.
There's lots of marvelous things to eat
And wonderful games to play

Beneath the trees where nobody sees
They'll hide and seek as long as they please
Cause that's the way the Teddy Bears have their picnic

If you go down to the woods today
You'd better not go alone
It's lovely down in the woods today
But safer to stay at home

For ev'ry bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.

Picnic time for Teddy Bears
The little Teddy Bears are having a lovely time today
Watch them, catch them unawares
And see them picnic on their holiday.

See them gaily gad about
They love to play and shout;
They never have any care;

At six o'clock their Mummies and Daddies,
Will take them home to bed,
Because they're tired little Teddy Bears.”

“Maybe the hand-me-down $35,000 cars, lol. There has been a rash of accidents in town where SUVs are rear-ending other cars that were simply sitting at traffic lights. The economy must be causing people to let go of their chauffeurs (sp).”

“Oh dear, the NASDAQ dropped again. We'll have to let Jeeves go."

It is hard to drive an SUV and talk on a cell phone at the same time.”

“Very nice song or poem, fly! I read it to the kiddies and they liked it.”

“Don't laugh, they did a cartoon on this, on "Hey Arnold!"”

“Trout Fishing in America rocks!!! How old are the kids? Kids of all ages enjoy TFIA.”

“What! You want the kids to watch trout fishing on TV? Are you nuts? Didn't you see the lame commercial about the family who gave their kid a subscription to the Wall St Journal vs the family who gave their kid the Trout Fishing Gazette? Same thing! Now actually taking the kids fishing would be different. Can we use long sticks or do I have to buy MORE gear?”

“Fur bear funnies chack out this:

http://www.adcritic.com/content/john-west-red-salmon-bear-fight.html”