Seminole, state credit strict rules for sharp drop in nuisance bear reports
After three Seminole women were mauled by bears in separate incidents nearly a decade ago, the county enacted tough new restrictions that cracked down on homeowners not securing their trash cans and leaving pet food outdoors.
The rules have been working, state wildlife officials said last week , as they point to a steady decline over the past three years in the number of reported conflicts between humans and the hairy beasts.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the total number of calls the agency received last year to report a bear in a Seminole neighborhood — including a bruin rooting through trash, destroying private property, lunging at dogs, or strolling into an open garage — has dropped by more than 18% over the past three years. In 2021, the agency received 421 reports of bears, down from 516 in 2019.
“Seminole County made the decision that we were going to do something proactive — including having the education campaign and the bear-proof containers,” Commissioner Lee Constantine said Thursday. “And it has proven to be a phenomenal success.”
It’s not just in Seminole that residents are reporting fewer troublesome bears.
Within the agency’s northeast region — which includes Volusia, Seminole, Lake, Orange, Osceola and Brevard counties — the number of calls to report bear sightings in 2021 was 2,904. Of those, 39%, or 1,132 calls, complained about a nuisance bear.
That’s a sharp drop from 2014, when the agency received a record 4,107 bear calls, and 47%, or 1,930, of those pertained to the animals causing trouble. The remainder were simply bear sightings.
“I am very proud of Seminole County residents for doing the right thing when it comes to bears,” said Katrina Shadix, a Geneva resident and president of Bear Warriors United, a nonprofit group that offers educational materials on bears and straps for homeowners to tie down their garbage lids.
“We have been an example for the rest of the state when it comes to securing our trash and bear awareness,” she said.
In 2016, Seminole designated the area west of Interstate 4 as the county’s Urban Bear Management Area after the women were attacked by bears in 2013 and 2014.
It’s also an area where the FWCC has received the most calls in the state from residents regarding nuisance bears, particularly within neighborhoods surrounding the Wekiva River, Wekiwa Springs State Park and along the Markham Woods Road corridor.
The county also passed an ordinance that mandated residents and businesses within that Urban Bear Management Area secure their trash cans, bring in their pet-food bowls, clean greasy barbecue grills and not hang bird feeders. Seminole became the first local government in the state to impose fines — up to $100 a day — on property owners who broke the rules or intentionally lured bears into their neighborhoods.
The county also provided bear-resistant trash cans at discounted rates with funding from the state Legislature.
In 2019, however, the state stopped funding the “Bear Wise” grant program. A Seminole spokeswoman said last week that the county stopped the can distribution because it was too expensive.
The county is now looking for ways to continue providing the special cans, Constantine said. But to be effective, it would mean every home in a neighborhood would have to purchase the special cans with the locked lids.
In 2019, Seminole widened the Bear Management
Area to Chuluota and the eastern side of Oviedo near the Little Big Econ State Forest after increasing reports of bears.
“We do think the actions of Seminole County are contributing to the numbers staying relatively low and decreasing,” said Mike Orlando, assistant bear program coordinator for the FWCC.
Orlando also noted that more residents now understand that bears will stroll out of the forest and wander into neighborhoods if they know they can find an easy buffet of food within full trash cans or pet bowls left outside overnight.
He also said people should never try to lure the animals by intentionally leaving food out.
“There are some folks who feel compelled to put food out for bears, and it’s not only a bad idea, but it’s illegal,” Orlando said. “As soon as you start putting food out there, and the bear becomes food conditioned and habituated, that’s really hard to break. It almost always ends with the bear being put down.”
Orlando also recommends residents crush plastic jars and jugs, such as gallon milk cartons, to prevent bears and other animals from getting their heads stuck inside.
Seminole commissioners on Tuesday are scheduled to hear a presentation about FWCC’s report on bears at a public meeting, which starts at 9:30 a.m. in the county administration building, 1101 E. First St., Sanford.