Document text
69 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, May 24, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Biz Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend May 23, 2005 Marianne and Maus Bailey look to where a bear reached up and tore down a hanging bird feeder at their home on Morton Street in Ashland. Nuisance bears can be turned away with measures like balloons filled with ammonia and smeared with peanut butter. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven unBEARable Spring run-ins are on the rise as bold bruins scavenge for food By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune The vandals tore the door off Jeff Schroeder’s pump house in the hills south of Ashland last week, thrashing the inside much like they did before to his hothouse and chicken coop. They’ve dribbled his barbecue down the hill, skinny-dipped in his pond and even knocked over his flagpole for no apparent reason. "They’re a nuisance," Schroeder says. "They’re not fun anymore. "They were cute when they were little guys wandering down the trail behind their mom," he says. "But they grow up." Advertisement Living in the buffet line for a black bear is no fun for Schroeder and other Rogue Valley residents enduring the spring ritual of having their yards ruined by bruins. Each spring, bears come out of their winter lulls in search of any food possible before the return of their natural food sources such as berries and even black-tailed deer fawns. Some of these bears follow their noses toward easy meals of bird seed, household garbage and other tasty tidbits found around humans. Looking to wet its whistle with a little sugar-water, a black bear with muddy paws climbed on Maus and Marianne Bailey’s porch on Morton Street in Ashland to swat down a hanging hummingbird feeder. The bear also munched another one hanging on a manzanita in the Baileys’ idyllic hillside yard. "We’re more intrigued than concerned," Marianne Bailey says. "We’re so close to the woods that we get all sorts of wildlife. It’s just this is the first time we had a bear." The Baileys are some of the 28 people who telephoned the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife this month with a bear complaint within Jackson or Josephine counties. And the trash-eating, sugar water-drinking bear of today becomes the pump house-smasher of tomorrow. "If you don’t stop them at the trash-can stage, they often get more assertive in getting their food," says ODFW wildlife biologist Rosemary Stussy in Central Point. "The next thing you know, they’re standing on your porch looking through the window thinking, ‘What do you have in that kitchen?’" The ODFW has a policy against trapping and relocating nuisance bears. Doing so could simply shift the problem elsewhere, disrupt bears in the relocated areas or transmit diseases. Stussy recommends residents who have their first encounter with a garbage-lunching bear to turn its intense sense of smell against it. Fill a balloon with ammonia, smear a little peanut butter on it and place it on your garbage can lid, she says. One beary bite into the balloon and the bear will think twice before bellying up to your trash can again. "That’s the first line of defense," Stussy says. "It’s cheap and it’s easy." Schroeder says he’s tried the balloons and that works for a few bears, but it’s only a short-term fix. "I’ve even shot them with a BB gun," Schroeder says. "I carry a gun with me out there now. "These bears are very brazen and they’re getting bolder every day," he says. The best defense against back-yard black bears is to rid your property of bear magnets. Compost piles. Barbecues with the remnants of last weekend’s cheeseburgers on the grill. Even cars emitting the sweet smells of chocolate from wrappers left inside. "I can’t imagine they get very much out of those," Stussy says. "But they can be very destructive trying to find out." Feeding systems meant to lure in black-tailed deer. Trash cans left outside. Even trash cans inside garages. All can produce the aromatic equivalent of a bullhorn begging bears to your lair and leaving residents pulling their hair in frustration. The Baileys plan on removing their hummingbird feeders at night. But they have left two small feeders affixed with suction cups to two first-floor windows. "Those will have to come down, too," Marianne Bailey says. "I think we’re pushing our luck with those." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Free Music Downloads Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg diamonds Distance Education Diamonds Online Poker Auto Insurance Mesothelioma Slippers Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation teleconferencing Website Design & Marketing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Mortgage Calculator Free Home-Loan Referrals Payday Loans Advertisement s