Bear Facts

I was thrilled to see Betty Bean's byline on a story about the bear situation in East Tennessee ["Bear Baiting," Vol. 7, No. 49]. She is, by far, my favorite newspaper writer in East Tennessee. I certainly hope that her work that I have enjoyed throughout the years has been more accurate in both tone and facts than "Bear Baiting."

I appreciate the fact that "poor innocent bear" against "mean high-tech hunter" stories sell, but this year, that is not the story. In a nutshell, what we have is known as a spike year. What this means is that we have a year in which there are an inordinate amount of bears. This is due to the recently discovered phenomenon that bears don't reproduce during years of mast failure. (Psst Betty: Mast includes the nuts of all the trees in the forest. Not just oaks. Soft mast is berries. They had a down year, too. The bears have been hungry for awhile.) In 1992 there was a mast failure. There was negligible reproduction. In 1993-96, however, we had some excellent mast years. ("Johnny, what does this mean?" "Uhh, that all the bears had cubs in 1993 and have had plenty to eat up 'til now.") In addition, thanks to the work of the Park Service, TWRA, Dr. Michael Pelton, and UT, among others, the bear population has been steadily growing over the last 30 years and is presently in very good shape, thank you very much. By and large, what we have in southeastern bear country is famine. And what we are seeing is the result of that.

That being said, there are a couple of points that seem to be swept under rugs.

1) Dog hunting is "high-tech" only in relation to the wheel. The reason people are getting more bears by the road is because (I'll print big because do-gooders don't get it) THAT'S WHERE THE TRASH IS!!!

2) Bear hunters have always been a motley looking crew. They're proud of that. They're proud of their dogs. They usually hunt back in the woods, but this year they're by the roads because THAT'S WHERE THE TRASH IS!!!

3) To bears, trash is food. Since Gatlinburg has no ordinance governing the maintenance of trash receptacles in a year of bear famine, bears are wandering into town because, you guessed it, THAT'S WHERE THE TRASH IS!!!

4) Once a bear starts getting into trash, or people start feeding it, it has signed its death warrant. Raiding garbage cans and taking handouts is far easier than foraging. Bears are smart. They are not going to give up easy city living to go back on the farm.

5) The bears that are being killed are not, by and large, the park and sanctuary population. In fact, little people, like me, are extremely disturbed by the fact that the TWRA allows certain residents to bait these bears. That 600 lb. nearly tame bear? Homer? What kind of idiots do these things?

6) Between the end of the Civil War and World War II, logging and mining were primary industries in East Tennessee. People got used to the reality that there was extremely scarce game. This is no longer the case. What we now have is a shortage of ethical sportsmen. Like it or not, we need the hunters and we don't have enough of them.

I suppose what disturbs me the most about this situation is that we do have one man in our midst, Dr. Pelton, who has devoted his career toward working to restore and study the bear population in our region. Had this harvest occurred 30 years ago, the bear population would have been eliminated in this area. As things stand, this harvest was necessary and predictable. In addition, unless we kill another 3,000-5,000 bears (est. best guess) in the second season, it will occur again.

I would also like to make an observation about the TWRA. I honestly don't believe these guys and gals give a damn about hunters and fishermen. The ones I have encountered give a damn about managing resources. The thing is, if you are a sportsman, you don't care if they give a damn about you. If they do, they aren't catching poachers, checking out game, doing scientific studies, or the trillion other things it takes an understaffed organization to do to manage a forest for all of us.

Finally, if you've read this far, you're probably wondering who I am. I'm Bob Fischer. I spend every chance I get in the woods. I don't read about issues like this to get an opinion, I ask around. And my question to Betty Bean would be this: How come you didn't listen to Dr. Pelton's two-hour interview on the radio?

Bob Fischer
1040 AM WQRB