"Bear Aware" more than a snappy slogan - it shows how human behavior must change at Lake Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The black bears who call Lake Tahoe home need the humans that live and visit there to know proper bear behavior. And it isn't the behavior of the bears, but of the humans, that will keep the bears healthy and alive.

Bears have started to emerge from their winter lodging, and they need humans to properly secure their food and property to ensure their survival. The sooner in a bear's life we do this, the better the chance they have to safely coexist with humans.

Bears don't wake up and think, "I'm going to break into trash today." If the food and trash are in their path as they walk through the area, the situation presents itself and the bear will learn to not eat what nature provides.

Yep, they need us!

They need us to not supply them with food.
They need us to secure our garbage.
They need us to not forget to lock our home and car doors, not even once.
They need us to not exhibit bad behaviors that could lead to their deaths.
They need those of us who work and live where there are dumpsters to always, always lock them and not leave trash on top.
They need us in the outdoors to always pack out our trash and utilize dumpsters when available - and never leave trash on the outside.
They need us to not leave food on the counters of our homes.
They need us to be responsible 24/7!

Just as we saw businesses and residents be complacent as bears went to their dens, we now need to make sure we don't allow complacency to happen again as they emerge.

Bearwise, the state agency collaboration to help people live responsibly with bears, is a great resource with multiple materials to learn from. All key points are listed on its website, https://bearwise.org/.

Did you ever forget to lock your car doors and a bear got in? "Oh, I only did it once," is something often heard around Lake Tahoe, but just think if all the car owners left their car doors unlocked "just once?" The bears are now addicted to human food - it's easy to get, and they find it filling.

Be smart now, not after the fact.

Bears are not a secret. They've been in Lake Tahoe for generations though their numbers have rebounded, and without change in human behavior, things will not get better.

The California Department of Wildlife (CDWF) has three full-time biologists in the Lake Tahoe Basin to work with some of the highest bear incidents in the state. The buffet of human-derived food is at Lake Tahoe, and if it continues easy to dine on that, the conflicts will continue, and not just this year.

CDFW biologists said male black bears come in and out of the Basin so their population is always in flux, but the females stay at the lake. The fattier the female is, the more cubs she’ll have as nature determines the number of cubs she'll have each year. If trash were to get under control, she wouldn't be eating as much, and fewer cubs would be born. There would be a decrease in population in the long run, but current bears would not leave.

"One year of humans being good would help," said the Tahoe biologists. "We need 100 percent of being good from this point forward if we want to coexist."

The biologists need the public to mitigate the first step in keeping human food away from bears. They said Tahoe is a great habitat for bears with an abundance of natural food, but once they are habituated it is hard to correct the behavior.

Bears now love sugar and are willing to change their behavior to get it, along with other human foods.

"Eliminate the attractants," said the Tahoe biologists. "It happens all across the state with other wildlife, but bears are smart and opportunistic."

"All it takes is somebody unfamiliar with the Tahoe bear issue, and that bear will be back," they added. That one issue will now have that bear coming back for more, over and over again, and affect the other people at the lake.

This spring, everyone needs to work on being "bear wise" - being a smart resident or visitor. Remove bird feeders, clean grills, lock doors and windows, don’t keep food in car, employ aggressive mitigation like electric mats, and install bear boxes. Apartment buildings and others with large dumpsters need to lock them up after every use, and it's up to tenants to follow through. People cannot just drop off trash next to a locked dumpster, especially in closed recreation areas.

There is not a neighborhood in the Lake Tahoe Basin that is free from having conflict issues with bears, said the biologists.

Some residents have tried to get rid of the bears that come to their homes through a depredation permit, but those are hard to get in California. There are many steps the biologists will use before anything lethal is even considered, including hazing like paintballs, and air horns - anything that can be done to make their interaction with humans unpleasant. Leaving dog food outside is a reward for being there.

The biologists will trap, tag, and release for research, and track movement (this is how they have found the males are going further out).

Residents have to prove they've done their best all mitigation efforts have been done, and the property is cleaned before one of the Tahoe biologists will do a site assessment, and do DNA samples long before a depredation permit is considered. The DNA samples would have to match other bears that have been breaking in.

Starting the negative conditioning on keeping bears away from homes and cars is easiest, and can be started immediately, and it is best for both bears and humans.

So, if we control the trash while holding both bears and people accountable, what comes next?

Human-bear conflicts are eliminated.

Resources:
https://bearwise.org/
https://www.tahoebears.org/
https://www.tahoebears.org/how-to-full