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Human Bear Management Program |
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Wednesday, 30 December 2009 |
By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
When Police Chief Randy Schienle introduced the Mammoth Lakes’ Human-Bear Management Plan in May, responsibility for its implementation was to be spread widely between various individuals and agencies to address all facets of the wildlife challenge.
A keystone of the Human-Bear Management Plan, roughly based on Yosemite’s, is to reduce unnatural food sources that create human-bear conflicts, an endeavor that is spearheaded in town with a dumpster patrol program organized by Human Resources Director Michael Grossblatt, which was particularly successful in 2009.
Mammoth’s Wildlife Specialist Steve Searles, who is known locally and nationally for his aversion techniques, also plays a prominent role in the Human-Bear Management Plan. In February, he was awarded a contract with the Town of Mammoth Lakes for $55,000 a year.
As Searles worked for the town, the town in turn worked with the Mono County Sheriff’s dispatch to include an indicator code for Searles in the dispatch system. This was intended to ensure that calls in which Searles participated would be recorded, and the MLPD would also document all incident reports into their RIMS system.
A significant glitch arose in late June during a routine call at the Sherwin Creek Campground after Searles discharged four non-lethal rounds at a bear eating improperly stored food in the back of a pick-up truck.
At the time, Forest Service Deputy District Ranger Mike Schlafmann said that because Searles is not a sworn peace officer, he is prohibited from discharging a firearm in a campground, even if the bullets are rubber bullets. This ultimately led Councilman John Eastman to suggest that Searles receive law enforcement training in a Santa Rosa Junior College program.
Within town limits, it was apparent by July that Mammoth Lakes had the “biggest problem of the problem bears” on its hands – a bear that came to be known as “Blondie” because of its light coloration.
This blonde bear broke into roughly a home a day in Old Mammoth causing thousands of dollars in property damage. The problem was exacerbated when police and Searles discovered that a second homeowner was regularly feeding this bear several pounds of dog and cat food, an illegal act that further habituated it to human sources of food.
Mayor Neil McCarroll’s home was one of those this bear broke into. He signed a depredation permit on Aug. 6 that might have led to its capture and destruction had it not eventually disappeared.
By law, a permit to destroy a depredation bear must be requested by a private citizen, a regulation that inhibits swift action on the part of the police and wildlife specialists. Few in Mammoth wanted to take responsibility for signing such a permit, so the blonde bear offended repeatedly during the summer of 2009.
Three other offending bears (a mother and two cubs) that caused thousands of dollars in damage to a Lakes Basin property were trapped and euthanized the week of Aug. 24 after a property owner received a depredation permit from the California Department of Fish and Game. Searles said at the time that the destruction of those bears was a direct result of his inability to perform his non-lethal techniques in the Lakes Basin, which is also within USFS jurisdiction.
At an Oct. 7 town council meeting, Eastman stepped up his efforts in favor of Searles attending law enforcement training in the future to help improve the efficacy of Mammoth’s overall bear management program.
Eastman also asked council to appoint additional members to the Council Wildlife Subcommittee, including Searles, and open those meetings to the public. By Oct. 22, town attorney Peter Tracy announced that the meetings would be noticed and open to the public.
The wildlife subcommittee has primary responsibility for carrying out the Human-Bear Management Plan and includes Schienle, Grossblatt, Councilmembers Skip Harvey and Wendy Sugimura, community representative Dan Dawson and Town Manager Rob Clark.
In an incident unrelated to Mammoth’s bear program, a visitor from Victorville shot and killed a bear with a handgun in a campground area near the spillway between lakes Mary and Mamie. By year end, that man had been charged by the Mono County District Attorney’s office for illegally discharging a firearm inside town limits (Mammoth Lakes Town Ordinance) and discharging a firearm in a developed recreational area (USFS).
By the close of bear season in the fall, many in the community had begun to question the effectiveness of the town’s Human-Bear Management Plan. Eastman remained one of the most prominent critics, arguing that the plan was an abject failure based on the Lakes Basin Bear killings along with a hit and run killing of a bear found at Lake Mamie – five dead bears in total for 2009.
But according to both Schienle and Searles, the number of wildlife incidents that occurred in town dropped dramatically after the Lakes Basin bears were killed and the blonde bear disappeared.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 09 January 2010 )
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