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Placer officials
take a look at bear issues |
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Lake Tahoe's black bears now are sleeping, but
some of the humans they got into trouble with last
year already are planning what to do when they
awaken.
Residents will remember the spring, summer and
fall of 2007 as a record period for bears breaking
into homes as well as bear deaths. At a monthly
Placer County Fish and Game Commission meeting in
Auburn this week, biologists and game wardens were
planning to talk about the large mammals and
discuss what may have caused the record fatalities
and break-ins, said Jason Holley, a wildlife
biologist with the California Department of Fish
and Game.
Holley said before the meeting that he expected to
give a prediction for the coming months.
Bear advocates say the agency did too little too
late last year to protect the bears and residents'
interests.
"I would like to see them say they are willing to
work with us, the BEAR League and the sheriff's
department," said Ann Bryant, executive director
of the BEAR League, a group that promotes peaceful
coexistence between bears and humans. "They have
tied our hands in every way imaginable."
Bryant said local agencies that want to help have
been thwarted by the state department. She said
"adverse conditioning," tying negative experience
to humans and their food, is a proven method that
her group practices.
She said in 2004, Fish and Game banned the use of
"Bear-B-Gones" - trash cans rigged with a
pepper-spray trap inside. When the lid is opened,
the bear receives an eyeful of spray. The state
agency, Bryant said, told her to stop using the
$1,000 traps because they constituted baiting and
harassing of wildlife.
Meanwhile, Bryant's organization is willing to
help Fish and Game with the bear issue with 150
trained volunteers, while the agency suffers from
a slim presence in the Tahoe Basin, Bryant said.
"They don't have anybody, not a single person (in
the basin), and even if they did, they wouldn't be
able to do anything," she said.
When faced with a problem, the agency takes hours
and sometimes days to respond because they are
based in Auburn, Bryant said.
Others who do not align themselves with the
league's philosophies still feel not enough is
being done.
"The sad thing is that the sheriffs will come out
and say, 'We can't do anything,' " said Timberland
homeowner Don Harder. "They say don't call Fish
and Game; they can't do anything. Who is supposed
to take the ball with this? The homeowners?"
The under-funded agency could see further
reductions because of California's $14 billion
deficit, said the area's state senator, Dave Cox.
No new funding is earmarked to address the bear
problem, Cox said.
Harder said he applauds the efforts undertaken in
Nevada's Department of Wildlife, with its three
strikes rule for bear break-ins and bear
relocation programs.
With proposed budget cuts throughout California,
Placer County Supervisor Bruce Kranz said as near
as anyone can tell, the effort will need to come
from the existing resources.
"The county has never used money for those (bear)
programs," Kranz said. "In order for us to deal
with this bear problem, we are going to have to
find someone in the private sector to help. In
some ways I don't think it's about money."
Cooperation between agencies is the key, said
Kranz, indicating that the BEAR League,
homeowners, restaurants along with law enforcement
should find common ground to solve the problem.
The District 5 supervisor said he might even
consider strict trash ordinances to curb the
bears. Such an ordinance is something Bryant said
her volunteers are lobbying for as well.
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