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Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Tuesday, January 6, 2009
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Mammoth community serious about fate of its bears |
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Saturday, 15 September 2007 |
Searles reinstated—temporarily
By Lara Kirkner
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 The dry season is one of the reasons more bears have been seen scavenging for food from dumpsters in and around the Town of Mammoth Lakes. The motto from DFG that “A fed bear is a dead bear,” has been proven true with one euthanization of a bear already occurring this year and the two worst months for human/ bear interfacing still on the horizon.MAMMOTH TIMES PHOTO/SUSAN MORNING
After a lively Town Council meeting on Sept. 5, followed by the death of another bear on Thursday, Sept. 6 (see this week's News Briefs), the Town of Mammoth Lakes called Searles on Friday morning, Sept. 7 to ask him to go back to work on a a temporary basis, and then things got tricky.
Searles claimed he worked over the weekend patrolling dumpsters and assessing the bear situation, but Mammoth Lakes Police Chief Randy Schienle, claimed he wasn't called by the police department over the weekend, so he wasn't working.
“We rehired Steve under the same conditions that he was working under before he did not sign his contract last spring, and the way it worked before was that he was under an on-call basis where the police department would call him when needed,” Schienle said.
Obviously there is still much to be worked out, and the first subcommittee meeting regarding this situation was to be held on Monday, Sept. 10 (see next week's Mammoth Times).
Searles, did however want to compliment the locals living in the Sierra Valley Sites for having all of their 93 dumpsters closed and locked over the weekend.
“I am so proud of the community,” Searles said. “Historically that area has been one of the biggest problems, but now everyone is doing a great job.”
This year drought conditions in many areas of the United States, as well as the age-old problem of people's inability to keep human food and garbage out of bears' reaches, have created an onslaught of human-bear interaction, with the bear always losing. This summer the Department of Fish and Game euthanized one bear after it had repeatedly broken into cabins in the Lakes Basin, many of which had people in them at the time. Several weeks later, another bear was found in the Sierra Valley Sites after allegedly being mowed down by a car. The Mammoth Lakes community is appalled and showed up at last week's Town Council meeting to demand stricter punishment for humans who leave their garbage lying around or do not secure their dumpsters against bears. Every person who spoke also cried out for the reinstatement of Searles to his position as the Town's “bear whisperer,” as he was dubbed by local Doug Schneider.
The public discussion followed a report from DFG Deputy Regional Manager for Region 6, Bruce Kinney, who came to the meeting to provide an update not only on bears, but also fish stocking (see Town Council Tidbits in this week's issue). Kinney emphasized that first and foremost, DFG has to be concerned with public safety (similar to the Forest Service's reasoning about why Hot Creek is still closed, see this week's story). He explained the agency's system of classifying a bear as type “green, yellow or red.”
A type red bear is one that has taken action that threatens public safety, and it will be euthanized, Kinney said. A type green bear is one that is not posing a threat, but that frightened humans have perceived as a threat because they are not used to the size and presence of bears. For type green bears, DFG will educate the person who made the call on how to coexist with bears.
Lastly, a type yellow bear, as Kinney classified the bear in the Lakes Basin, has learned a behavior and is repeating it, which to DFG shows a potential for imminent public threat.
“It's a risk because no one knows exactly what the animal will do,” Kinney said.
Locally, the Mammoth Lakes Police Department has been working hard with its bear hazing program that was implemented by Searles in the early 1990s. Kinney claimed that the MLPD was the best-trained outfit in the county when it came to bear hazing. The community, however, was not satisfied and continued to call out for Searles' reinstatement, so that the Town would have a full-time bear man on the scene instead of officers that receive a one-time, four-hour lesson on bear training.
One member of the public pointed out to the council that the Town is always looking for experts from around the world to come to Mammoth and help us solve our problems, so it's a shame that they're not using the one that is actually living here (Searles). The community wants someone who can be proactive rather than reactive, as Searles could be, and was previously.
Overall it was determined that the Town's dumpsters need to be watched more closely, not only for areas where they are not being emptied often enough, but also for people who leave their trash lying next to a dumpster in the middle of the night during a drop and run. These dumpster violators don't want to the take the time to open and close the container for fear of getting caught. Talk of other ways to ameliorate the bear situation also included radio wave collars that train the bears to stay out of a certain area, or possible sterilization of the animals to reduce the population and avoid so many bears having to deal with food shortages in drought seasons. Many sows this year have been seen with two cubs, which concerned the community about next year's bear season and the possibility of having twice as many hungry animals roaming through town.
In an interview on Monday, however, Searles pointed out that sterilization is not necessary and not scientifically sound.
“Bears self regulate to their environment,” Searles said. “Nationally 51 percent of bears are dead at 18 months, and they only breed every three years.” Which means the sows with two cubs this year will be down to one cub by next year at this time.
Everyone agreed that Mammoth is experiencing a human problem, not a bear problem, but sadly the bears still pay for these human foul ups. More education and enforcement are key if the community expects to save its bears. As Police Chief Schienle pointed out, “It's no longer en vogue to have bears in dumpsters behind your restaurant in order for people to look at them while they dine,” and indeed one local restaurant, Perry's, had allegedly received a fine recently for leaving its dumpster open. The fine for an overflowing dumpster needs to outweigh the cost of more dumpster pickups during any given week, but since neither the Town nor the MLPD could say how much the fines were, it was difficult to determine how much they needed to be increased in order to make this happen.
The audience was vocal and applauded each speaker. Some of the ideas voiced, besides rehiring Searles, were: allowing campground hosts to give citations for leaving food out for bears; to start a program called “Berries for Bears,” where locals would buy berry seeds and scatter them along paths as they hike throughout town; to create programs similar to Neighborhood (crime) Watch groups that could specifically watch for people leaving trash outside dumpsters; and to teach visitors how to use the Town's locking dumpsters so they do not get frustrated and leave their trash lying around. It was also pointed out, however, that dumpster locks need to keep evolving as many bears have learned how to undo the locks and get in anyway.
The reaction from council was that the Town does indeed need a full-time wildlife expert, but that they need to follow the procedure of developing and hiring the position.
“We need to create a job description,” said Mayor Skip Harvey, and the council decided to create a subcommittee of Harvey, Councilwoman Wendy Sugimura, Town Manager Rob Clark and Schienle to create a description and bring it back to the next Town Council meeting. The possibility of hiring Searles on a consultant-type basis is also on the table.
“We need to have a short-term fix with the consulting idea and then a long-term fix with a permanent position,” said Councilman Kirk Stapp.
Who is Steve Searles?
After working for the Town of Mammoth Lakes as the Wildlife Specialist for more than 12 years, Steve Searles was fired on March 15 of this year after he had requested to expand his job description to Community Watch/Citizen Outreach Program Facilitator in which he would try to help with Mammoth's drug and violence problems that are continually growing. Searles was and still is concerned about the health of the community, a place he has lived for more than 30 years. He was also hoping to begin to receive health benefits as well as insurance for the line of work he was doing with animals, in which he was carrying a firearm.
At the time he was let go, the MLPD and Searles agreed that his current position had been completed successfully, with bear and coyote problems seemingly under control. Searles, however, had hoped to carry over what he had done for the bears to his neighbors. Even today, Searles sees the bears as merely a symbol of the work that needs to be done for the people of Mammoth Lakes.
“Black bears are the largest indicator species we have,” Searles said in an interview the day following last week's Town Council meeting. “They are also an emblem of our quality of life in Mammoth. 'Steve Searles' is also an indicator species of our community. What is going on is hurting our community more than the bears or me.” Searles was referring to crime, politics and other items he feels are “killing the community.”
He went on to say that he was completely overwhelmed by the support and love that was shown to him the previous evening and that he would be happy to work with the Town once again in his Wildlife Specialist capacity, and stated he is open to working as a consultant as well.
While he agreed that the increased bear activity was partially due to the drought, he also pointed out that the town has seen years of drought before and had gone through them without having to destroy any bears.
Searles pointed out that September and October are the busiest months for human/bear interfacing, and that these interfaces go hand in hand with conflict, injury and death.
When asked whether he is still interested in trying to solve Mammoth's people problems and how that would play in to the possibility of returning as Bear Man, Searles said that first and foremost he is a people person, but that he is willing to do the job at hand to help the community. He had no comments as to whether or not the Town had a window of opportunity to get him back on the job, as one member of the community had hinted at last week's meeting.
“I need as much help as I can get to put the bears to bed for this year and then I can use the winter to come up with a new program,” Searles concluded.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 21 September 2007 )
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Copyright © 2009 The Mammoth Times All Rights Reserved
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