If you
want to keep black bears out of your neighborhood, then you have to secure your
garbage so bears can’t get to it.
That was the primary advice given to the Franklin County
Commission on Tuesday by David Telesco, the Florida Fish and Wildlife bear
management coordinator for our area.
Florida is home to an estimated 6000 black bears which cover
a large portion of the state, with about 1000 in Franklin and surrounding
counties.
With more bears, there is a much greater chance of human/bear
interaction and also a greater need for people to act responsibly.
Bears can get all of the food they need from the woods, but
they will go anywhere where food is easily available.
Garbage cans, pet food and dirty grills are some of their
favorite spots.
State officials get about 170 calls a year in Franklin
County about bears and about a quarter of the calls are about bears in residential
garbage.
The primary response to those calls is to tell the person to
secure their trash.
If that doesn’t work, then the bear is either captured and
moved or it is killed.
The state has killed about 62 bears in Franklin County in
the past 10 years.
The problem is that removing or killing the bear does not
solve the problem – there is always another bear to take its place.
But securing trash does fix the problem, studies done in
Florida have shown a 66 percent drop in bear related calls when household
garbage is secured.
Bear resistant trash cans should be available through your trash
company, and if not, there are kits that can make most trash cans bear
resistant.
Mister Telesco said We want people to be safe and feel safe
in their neighborhoods and we want the bears to stay in the woods but that does
require people to do their part.
County Commissioners said the appreciate the information but
feel more needs to be done.
Commission chairman Ricky Jones pointed out that the state
owns 90 percent of the land in Franklin County, and if more is not done to
limit the number of bears, humans will soon be outnumbered.
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