Protecting Black Bears in New York

American Black Bear by Larry Master (masterimages.org)

A century and a half ago, the great naturalist and wilderness explorer John Muir wrote that if it came to a war between humans and bears, he’d be tempted to side with the bears. So would I, especially after watching nearly half of our country’s voters back a man who seems to have complete disdain for the natural world. Black Bears are among the most intelligent and versatile of eastern residents, and have many traits that make them similar to hominids – our family of the primate order. (Perhaps partly because bear skeletons look startlingly similar to human skeletons, many Native American tribes held bears to be sacred or to be kin to themselves.)

Yet we allow more than a tenth of our Black Bears to be shot or trapped every year in New York – 1715 reported statewide, including 583 in our northern zone, in 2015, from a population DEC estimates statewide at 6000-8000 — as well as thousands more killings of bears across the country. For sociable animals, whose elders teach youngsters, this death toll is surely trying, if not positively damaging and cruel. Remember, these animals have families, too. Black Bears (Ursus americanus) are versatile, resourceful creatures, and can thrive in many habitats, even in the vicinity of human settlements, if they have ample forest cover and food and are tolerated by people.

Living with Bears

Split Rock Wildlife Sighting: Black Bear (Credit: John Davis)

With bears, though, coexistence goes beyond simply accepting them. We must learn to live thoughtfully and carefully, to avoid putting bears in undue jeopardy. Unsecured trashcans and birdfeeders can become “attractive nuisances” for bears, and lure them into conflict with humans. Human/bear conflict usually results in the killing of the bear. Those of us fortunate enough to live in or near bear habitat need to learn how not to tempt our big furry neighbors into danger. Of course, our cars, too, pose serious dangers to bears, and roads themselves can fragment bear populations. Thus, especially important to bears and other large carnivores are big road-free areas such as designated Wilderness here in New York’s Adirondack Park.

Seeing a bear in the Adirondack forest is, for many of us, a special thrill we may only be lucky enough to experience a time or two a year. Bears are generally afraid of people, unless habituated to easy food from human carelessness. The park rangers’ motto that “A fed bear is a dead bear” is all too true, where campers or homeowners are sloppy.

Hunting of Bears

Local Wildlife Camera: Black Bear (Credit: John Davis)

Hunting bears would be extremely difficult and success rates low, but for the incredible noses of dogs. Much hunting of bears is done with hounds, which track the bears and sometimes tree or corner them, till the shooter can come in for the kill. Even more ethically problematic, to many of us, is baiting bears, then shooting them at the food pile. This is illegal in many states, including New York, but likely still done even in some places where it is illegal.

Still other bears are shot through the sheer misfortune of walking within range of a rifle-hunter who is out aiming for deer. Most of us in conservation can support hunting for food; and many of us are hunters ourselves. However, trophy hunting is a different game – a cruel and ecologically destructive one, some of us would argue. Bears are not usually shot for food; they are generally targets – “game” — of trophy hunters. Carnivores reproduce slowly and play vital roles in keeping numbers of herbivores in check, and we ought to be grateful to them for playing forest guardian.

Protecting Bears & Other Carnivores

We are overdue as a society to recognize that trophy hunting and trapping are unethical and damaging to the land. Let us admire bears and other carnivores safely from afar, and learn to share our forests peacefully with them.

Let us also protect big road-free areas, where shy, sensitive, and wide-ranging species, including bears, can thrive. We have an opportunity now here in the Adirondacks to do this by adding the new Boreas Ponds tract of the Forest Preserve to the High Peaks Wilderness. See BeWildNY.org for information on how to get involved in protecting the Boreas Ponds area as Wilderness – for the good of bears and all wildlife and the many Adirondack residents and visitors who like to quietly enjoy these creatures’ forest homes.

[Special thanks to Lake Placid based nature conservation photographer Larry Master (www.masterimages.org) for permission to feature several of his photographs in this post.]

About John Davis

John Davis is a wildways scout, editor, and writer. He lives with his family in Split Rock Wildway, where he care-takes Hemlock Rock Wildlife Sanctuary when not roaming farther afield. He is a volunteer land steward for Eddy Foundation, which has secured and opened to the public about 3,000 acres in the eastern Adirondacks; has been a board member of Champlain Area Trails and other outdoor/wildlife organizations; a co-founder of Wildlands Network; Rewilding Advocate for Adirondack Council; and is the Wildways Scout for The Rewilding Institute. He is the editor of many conservation publications and author of Big, Wild, and Connected: Scouting an Eastern Wildway from Florida to Quebec—about his 7,600-mile traverse of the proposed Eastern Wildway in 2011. His 5,000-mile traverse of the Rocky Mountains from Sonora, Mexico, to British Columbia, Canada, is featured in the film Born to Rewild. His second book, Split Rock Wildway: Scouting the Adirondack Park’s Most Diverse Wildlife Corridor is a rambling look at some of the charismatic and enigmatic wildlife thriving in the wooded hills and adjacent waterways linking Lake Champlain with the High Peaks.