Bear Encounters On The Rise

August 6, 2008

Once again this summer is bringing drought conditions to parts of the country as can be seen in the below map provided by the U.S. Drought Monitor website.

KRDO.com out of Colorado Springs is reporting that bear/human encounters have already surpassed last year’s total and are warning people to be aware that bears are hungry and are coming to where they can find food.

On a side note, when I arrived at my camp here in Maine back in early June, my wife had walked some of our lot and returned saying she had seen where something had clawed up a cedar tree on the west end. I walked out to take a look and it appeared a bear had dug the daylights out of a smallish cedar tree after what appeared to be ants.

Yesterday afternoon our neighbor stopped up to let us know that a bear had been in her prized blackberry patch and really did a number on it.

While we are here at our camp, we make every effort we can to make sure we leave nothing that would draw any wildlife to our camp, save a few chipmunks and a stray toad or two. This is the same as what people should be thinking who live in areas where bears are. Once a bear associates humans with a free meal, all too often results in a dead bear.

Tom Remington