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Fish and Game Wants Bear Law
September 6, 2007
By JOYCE EDLEFSEN
jedlefsen@uvsj.com
ST. ANTHONY – Seven bear incidents were reported in Fremont County last week – and those are just the ones noted on the dispatchers' logs.
Drought, a scarcity of natural food sources and the chance to secure human food are bringing bears closer to places where people live in Ashton and Island Park.
And that's not the worse of it.
Steve Schmidt, Idaho Fish and Game Department regional supervisor, said there have been incidents of people baiting grizzly bears to draw them within viewing and photographing distant at cabins in Island Park.
After handling numerous calls about bears over the Labor Day weekend, Schmidt and Regional Conservation Officer John Hanson asked Fremont County for help Tuesday in controlling those who flagrantly risk their own safety and others by baiting the bears.
Since March, when grizzlies were taken from the threatened species list, the job of the Fish and Game, the agency charged with managing the delisted bears, has grown more complex, Schmidt said, particularly in this drought year where the bears are increasingly on the move to find food.
"The bottom line is, we cannot do this by ourselves. We're going to have to work together in this," he told county officials. "If we fail, they could be on the list again."
Schmidt said the grizzly management plan allows a mortality rate of four to six female bears a year in the Yellowstone ecosystem. One sow has been trapped and sent to a research facility from the Island Park area this summer. Her cubs also were trapped and removed, but they both happened to be male bears.
Schmidt related two recent incidents that helped prompt the visit Tuesday to the county commissioners.
In the first, an Island Park man put a sheet of plywood atop a post in front of the picture window in his cabin. He put birdseed on the plywood platform and waited for the grizzlies to find the seed.
A grizzly did accept the invitation.
"After a few days of having the bear there and sleeping in his yard, he called the Fish and Game," Schmidt said. "He told the officer that if the bear came through his picture window he would shoot it."
In the second incident, an Island Park man purposely installed a camera connected to a motion sensor and left trash out to attract a grizzly. Again, the bear became aggressive.
"It's a public safety issue," Schmidt said, urging the county commissioners to consider an ordinance that would address those who are "flagrantly causing a public safety issue."
He offered samples of ordinances from Jackson, Wyo., West Yellowstone, Mont., British Columbia and communities in Colorado that have had to regulate storage of trash, food and other bear attractants in bear country.
After reports of a grizzly bear in the Mack's Inn area last week, Fish and Game officers attempted to get the word out to holiday weekend visitors in Island Park.
Hanson said it was an impossible task.
"There were thousands of people up there this weekend," he said. "So many folks had no awareness of the bears."
Schmidt said the Fish and Game would like the ordinance to address "those who refuse to be accountable" for drawing grizzlies into population centers.
"We can't afford to trap and remove every bear that tips over a trash can in Island Park," he said.
With many "eyes and ears watching" how the agency handles management of the grizzlies since their delisting – with wolf delisting in the wings – Schmidt said it's critical that no more grizzlies have to be removed – particularly female bears.
Schmidt urged the county to consider phasing in a bear ordinance, in part because it will take time to change attitudes. "We know it will be difficult," he said.
The commission agreed to have County Prosecutor Karl Lewies review the sample ordinances and come up with a Fremont County version that can be reviewed by the Fish and Game and the sheriff before being presented to the commission for adoption.
In the meantime, people who live in bear country should expect to have to be extra vigilant from now until bears hibernate due to the extreme shortage of natural bear food.
Many people expect bears that are getting into garbage or other human food sources to be trapped and moved. But this year, that's not an option.
"We can't move them far enough away," Hanson said after the meeting. "They'd come back because there's just no food."
Schmidt said one suggestion has been to move road kill away from populated areas to try to draw the bears away. A similar proposal, to drop food sources in remote areas, has been suggested in the Lake Tahoe area and has been used in other states.
It may be a small consolation, but Schmidt said Fremont County is not alone in dealing with hungry bears in population centers. "It's a problem all over the state and West," he said. |
