People, not just bears, might face crackdown

As state wildlife officials begin to hammer out rules for a likely bear hunt later this year, they also endorsed strategies this week to focus more closely on another nuisance blamed for the rapid rise in the number of dangerous human-bear conflicts: people.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wants tougher penalties for people who feed bears illegally and more cooperation from neighborhoods near bear habitat.

“This is not something we can do on our own,” FWC Commissioner Brian Yablonski said of the wildlife agency’s efforts to reduce clashes. “There has to be an element of getting the community to police itself.”

Under current Florida law, bear feeders face a seconddegree misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 and 60 days in jail. The wildlife agency wants state lawmakers

to ratchet up the penalties for repeat offenders, who could face felony charges and up to five years in prison.

“Feeding a bear is not good for people or the bear,” said Thomas Eason, a wildlife biologist and FWC’s top bear expert.

Though lost in the uproar over a hunt, garbage remains the biggest challenge for the agency, which has documented a spike in humanbear conflicts and maulings of four people in 14 months, including a 15-year-old girl in the Panhandle and Seminole County women attacked by bears in gated neighborhoods.

Nearly one of every three calls to the state’s nuisancebear hotline reports a bear rummaging through garbage.

“We all understand the issues,’” said Donna Hilyard, a longtime resident of Wingfield Reserve in Longwood, where bears often mosey in from the nearby Wekiva River Buffer Conservation Area.

Hilyard, 62, who attended the FWC meeting in Jacksonville to oppose a bear hunt, said she owns a $220 bearresistant trash container, which survived an inspection by a bear that dragged it into the woods. Her neighbors, she said, respect bears and keep garbage locked up until the morning of pickup day.

“We all understand that we’re the problem, and we can be the solution,” she said.

The agency recognized another Longwood neighborhood, Wingfield North, as an example of a community that took steps to quell bear conflicts. The neighborhood’s homeowners association adopted “bear-wise” rules last year after a 300-pound bear mauled resident Susan Chalfant, who was walking her dogs.

The new rules require use of bear-resistant cans and can levy fines on anyone who feeds bears — deliberately or unwittingly.

The state would like to get more lock-top garbage receptacles in neighborhoods near forested areas, but FWC’s plan does not spell out who would shoulder the cost of the more expensive containers.

Using money raised by the sale of “Conserve Wildlife” license plates, FWC helped Seminole County last year offer the $180 bear-resistant trash cans to residents living west of Interstate 4. But only 344 homeowners — fewer than 1 percent of those eligible

“If there’s an elevated risk at all, we’re going to euthanize that bear and put human safety first.”

— signed up.

Residents of neighborhoods adjacent to forested areas should realize they can’t live as though bears aren’t nearby, and that might require them to pay for special trash containers because they have proved effective deterrents, said Julie Wraithmell, director of wildlife conservation for Audubon Florida. “If you build a house on the coast, you have to build to wind standards. If you move into a home in a flood plain, you ought to have flood insurance,” Wraithmell said. “Likewise, if you decide to live in bear country, it’s not unreasonable to expect that you should buy a $250 bearresistant trash container.”

FWC’s new strategies also demonstrate a get-tough philosophy on both problem bears and problem people.

“This more-aggressive approach [with bears] is focused on these suburban neighborhoods where people are walking and getting attacked, which is completely unacceptable from our perspective,” said Eason, dubbed “Dr. Bear” by commission Chairman Richard Corbett.

In the past, the agency might have spared a bear that lingered in a neighborhood without harming people, pets or property.

“We’re moving that line back,” Eason said. “If there’s an elevated risk at all, we’re going to euthanize that bear and put human safety first.”

He said people have an obligation to behave responsibly in bear country.

“There are areas of the state where you’re in prime bear range or a national forest or a wildlife-management area and, in those areas, you’re in the bear’s backyard,” he said. “People need to do everything possible to coexist with them.”