Letter: Human/Bear Conflict

In the wake of the bear shooting that happened last week, I feel compelled to speak out on the issue. I, like almost all of the citizen black bear and wildlife advocates around the Tahoe Basin, hold no degree in wildlife biology. My view and qualifications on this issue come from being a 38 year resident of South Lake Tahoe, and for the last ten years, I have been very active in wildlife rescue and helping residents old and new to deal with wildlife issues, with a focus on our urbanized black bear population. In the last 7+ years, I've personally done over 250 evictions/aversions of black bears, moving them along off of people's property, getting them out of dumpsters, getting them out from inside homes, and evicting them from denning/day bedding in the crawl spaces of buildings. All done with non-lethal aversion methods and never endangering the bear or the human inhabitants of my community. One of the big differences between me and some local bear advocates is the fact that my number one priority is the safety and well-being of my human community members, and running a very close second is our local wildlife.

I'm a bit dismayed at the reaction of many locals on social media immediately verbally attacking the person that was, unfortunately, and without malice, thrust into a very bad situation for both him and the bear. The verbal torches and pitchforks came out with little or no concern as to the facts of the incident. These reactions serve no purpose as it pertains to helping/solving the underlying issue. And let me state clearly that I am not demonizing the bear in this situation, it was just following its nose. Nor do I believe that the human, in this case, should be demonized for doing what he felt he had to do inside a building to protect himself and the others of his party. Maybe it's not how I, or any of you, might have handled the situation, and since none of us were there that makes it unfair to judge him. At least in my book.

Over the last 10-15 years urbanized black bears have become an issue in not just Lake Tahoe, but a number of other places that have localized black bear populations in close proximity to urban areas. Black bears are opportunistic feeders and do quite well in the search for calories in an environment inhabited by lazy humans that can't be bothered to restrict access to human food and trash by wildlife. Many here in Lake Tahoe are quick to point a finger at tourists and new residents, but to be sure this is a chronic local issue with locals creating the lion's share of the problems. Our urbanized black bears now have access to food sources 52 weeks a year by virtue of apartment and business dumpsters not being locked, folks who put their trash out the night before pickup, and more often than not the worst offenders of purposely feeding bears/wildlife tends to be older, long time locals.

This access to food sources 52 weeks a year has had some radical changes on our urbanized black bear population. Many of these bears are not technically hibernating (torpor) over winter any more, but instead, continue to consume the calories they have come to love and depend on throughout the winter. The weight of some of these bears is far above what's considered normal. Last September while working with a photographer from National Geographic for an upcoming article on urbanized wildlife I was able to locate 25 different bears for him to photograph in just a three-day period, and never left the city limits of South Lake Tahoe. It is my estimation that at that point in time we had close to 40+ bears spending most of their time within the South Lake Tahoe city limits. That population density of black bears is extremely unnatural, or as I would say, artificial, and directly attributable to humans allowing access to food sources and hiding places under and around buildings.

In the last five years on the South Shore, we've had a number of inside a building human/bear conflicts, some involving physical interaction between the bear and human. These situations are generally rare, but they do happen. Although the bear is just following its nose in search of an easy meal and has absolutely no desire to interact with a human, fate sometimes dictates a different outcome. Yes, the responsibility to secure their home from access by wild animals falls on the resident/property owner, but sometimes even the grooviest of locals, or visitors, may forget to lock a door or window when not home or in a specific room.

Regardless of the reason, when a bear ends up inside a building with humans present this creates a potentially dangerous situation for both the humans and the bear. Black bears are generally not dangerous, but in an enclosed situation with the possibility that the human is blocking the bear's escape route creates a high potential to be a dangerous encounter. Those who argue against that fact being true are either completely ignorant to the reality of the situation, or are flat out lying so as to somehow protect the bears. 

I want to reiterate that I am not demonizing the bears, and I would like to ask my community to not jump to conclusions in these situations and demonize the humans involved. To be sure this issue of urbanized wildlife is a human-caused issue and we need to get off our collective behinds and make the necessary changes to protect both wildlife and the human residents of Lake Tahoe.

Please have compassion for both the humans and the wildlife of our community! 

- Toogee Sielsch