Making room
for black bears

By JOHN JOSE, Pike Conservation District Educator

For thousands of years, the black bear (ursus americanus) has inhabited the Upper Delaware River Valley.

Prior to European settlement, black bears roamed over vast stretches of old growth forest, verdant river valleys, rocky ridge tops and abundant wetlands. But, over the last 300 years, significant landscape changes have occurred.

In the early stages of settlement, killing bears for food or because they were considered vermin impacted local bear populations, and so did clearing forests for farms and towns. But dramatic impacts on forest ecosystems and bear populations did not occur until the latter part of the nineteenth century when rapid industrial development fueled large-scale deforestation. The extensive deforestation and continued killing of bears drastically reduced their numbers.

However, during the 20th century, combined factors turned the tide for black bears, enabling them to recover much of their range. The timber boom ended and forests returned, farms were abandoned and provided space for new forest growth and regulations limited or prohibited bear hunting. Over the past 20 years, the black bear population has more than tripled; the game commission estimates that approximately 15,000 black bears live in Pennsylvania today.

Still, while recovery of the black bear is a great success story in North American wildlife conservation, significant threats exist. There is much that we can do to make room for bears, including understanding how to cohabitate with them on a day-to-day basis.

Around the home and in our communities, efforts should be undertaken to minimize opportunities for bears to obtain food of human origin, including rubbish in garbage cans or dumpsters, pet food placed outside, seed from bird feeders, sugar water from hummingbird feeders and corn for deer and turkeys.

Making food available to bears, intentionally or unintentionally, is one of the greatest disservices we can do to these animals. The bears that come to associate humans with sources of  food are the animals most likely to become problem or nuisance bears. In effect, they lose their natural fear of humans and will likely cause property damage and find themselves in negative bear-human interactions.

Capturing and moving nuisance bears is costly and is often a temporary way to address the problem. It is difficult to find a place where habituated bears can be released to prevent further encounters with people. Many bears also return to the area from where they were removed. Wildlife agencies tell people that a fed bear is a dead bear because eventually, there are no other alternatives.

In order to keep bears out of human food sources, consider hanging bird feeders between the beginning of December and the end of February. Put out household rubbish in the morning for pick-up instead of the night before. Avoid providing supplemental food for wildlife, such as corn, and bring in pets’ food dishes at night. Keep in mind that Pennsylvania has banned intentional or unintentional food provision for bears.

On a larger scale, as residential and commercial development continues to sprawl across the landscape, bear habitat is lost altogether or becomes fragmented into ever smaller pieces. Unbroken tracts of forested areas, preferred habitat for black bears, are lost and bears are forced to navigate a maze of roads and subdivisions interspersed with their preferred habitat of forested tracts and wetlands.

Planning for regional growth and development that takes into account bears is possible and necessary. All important wetland areas, which are utilized for food and cover, should be given priority for protection and buffer zones should be considered. Wildlife corridors, segments of undeveloped land that interconnect other larger tracts of intact bear habitat, should be identified and maintained. Computer technology now allows us to map these and other critical habitat areas.

Such areas can and must be incorporated into long-term planning efforts to help insure cohabitation with our magnificent black bears.