With black bear sightings about to rise in New Fairfield and Sherman, now’s the time for a refresh on basic etiquette in sharing our space with these incredible creatures. While bears tend to stick to heavily wooded areas, they will occasionally leave the forest in search of immediately available food, the points at which residents are more likely to encounter them.
Everyone’s seen the photos of bears in seemingly absurd situations: Bears walking down residential roads, eating out of overturned garbage cans, raiding birdfeeders, and more. Fortunately, there are a number of recommendations to follow that can help keep property and pets–and bears!–safer. First, wait to put garbage out until as close to its pickup day or time as possible, and clean up food and garbage from your property. If you can, CT Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) suggests storing your garbage cans inside your garage or shed. Secondly, DEEP recommends removing birdfeeders from March to November. During this period, birds are self-sufficient and bears will not be attracted to the feed. In addition, DEEP reminds residents to keep grills clean, to store pet food indoors, and to refrain from adding meat or sweets to compost piles.
Though bears hibernate in the winter months, they aren’t completely reclusive. They do rise to eat multiple times, especially in a warmer-than-average winter like the one we have experienced. There is a large amount of bear activity on the Great Hollow Nature Preserve and Ecological Research Center’s property. Executive Director Chad Seewagon says, “We get photos of them on our trail cameras very consistently, including sows with cubs, so there is a good amount of bear activity in this area. We have found them to be fearful of people and to keep to themselves, and have never had any negative interactions.”
If you are hiking at Great Hollow, or another local spot, it is best to just make noises as you normally would on a walk in the woods; your presence is typically enough to make bears retreat. If, in a remarkably rare occurrence, you do ever encounter a bear mid-trail, it is important to back away slowly, turn around, and go back the way you came. Also, DEEP recommends keeping dogs on leashes, as a roaming dog may be considered a threat to a bear or its cubs.
With controversy afoot in Connecticut regarding bears and whether to expand hunting regiments, the bear population is certainly under scrutiny. Seewagon supposes of the bear population that, “Carrying capacity is a tough thing to quantify in species like bears that are able to live in densely developed areas and get food subsidies from humans (bird feeders, garbage, etc.). Unfortunately, the way most people look at this is totally backwards – bears are not encroaching on our homes and creating conflict, we are constantly developing natural spaces and moving into their habitat, causing that habitat to shrink and shrink, inevitably bringing us into more contact with bears and other wildlife.”
There are a lot of reasons to celebrate bears in Connecticut–their population is healthy and continuing to thrive–and the best way to keep them safe is by following time-tested recommendations. In addition to the advice above, CT DEEP’s website counsels “If you see a black bear in your yard, enjoy the sighting from a distance and report your sighting [at www.ct.gov/deep],” but most importantly, “If a bear is seen in your town or neighborhood, leave it alone. In most situations, if left alone and given an avenue for escape, the bear will usually wander back into more secluded areas.”
By Sarah Opdahl