Encounters with bears increase across region

Predictions that hungry bears would cause problems around human habitation at the end of this hot, dry summer are coming true at Priest Lake.

“We’re getting five to eight calls a day from people with bear problems,” said Jim Hayden, wildlife manager for the Idaho Fish and Game Department Panhandle Region.

Despite pleas from wildlife managers to remove food sources that attract the animals, bears are in conflict with campers and cabin owners this month, from California through Montana. Huckleberries and other natural bear foods are in short supply in many areas, experts have warned.

Garbage, pet food and unharvested fruit trees are the biggest problem, luring bears closer to people where the animals cause damage or safety concerns, Hayden said.

In many cases, the problems stem from blatant human carelessness, he added.

A young male grizzly had to be trapped and removed from the Nordman area of Priest Lake after it became attracted to the deck of a cabin where someone was feeding animals, Hayden said.

“We put a GPS unit on it, hauled the bear north into the Selkirks near the Canada border where it seemed content to eat huckleberries, but then it came back,” he said.

“It was back in the Nordman area recently, then it moved toward McAbee Falls,” Hayden said. “We’re keeping our eye on it, and we’d like to trap it and move it again (before denning time), but trapping is difficult because the bear is moving around five to 15 miles a day.”

Hayden said he recently talked to a grizzly specialist near Kalispell that had six grizzly bears at one time sitting in his yard in traps waiting to be relocated.

Black bears, however, are the source of most complaints, Hayden said.

“We really urge people living in bear country to pick their fruit and remove all food sources,” he said.