Special to the Daily News

MIDDLESBORO — After a spurt of bear sightings last spring, local agencies are preparing for more possible human-bear conflicts this autumn.

Access to natural foods have kept the bears away from developed areas, but with cooler weather bears may range farther as they attempt to put on as much weight as possible for the upcoming winter.

“Bears forage,” said Jenny Beeler, acting chief of the resource management division at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. “That means they’ll be moving around searching for whatever food they can find, and that will include anything (food or garbage) that they can eat.”

That is why the park is hosting a community meeting at the park this Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 7 p.m., to talk about bears, and especially problem bears. Staff from the park, Middlesboro Police Department, and Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources will give presentations and answer questions about bears and avoiding bear trouble.

“We want to protect the bears from people, and people from the bears,” said Beeler. “There isn’t much we can do to teach the bears, but there’s a whole lot we can do to teach the public.”

“For example,” Beeler said, “just knowing that bears tend to feed at night means that you can avoid problems by putting out your garbage in the morning. Less access to garbage cans means that the bear doesn’t learn to eat your garbage, associate people with food or visit your house at any time of the day.”

Another lesson is that bears will eat a lot of different foods, including your garbage, your birdseed, the pet food you leave on the porch, or the corn you use to feed the deer. If a bear can use it for food, it will, and once it learns where to find food it will return.

“A typical problem bear,” said Beeler, “will explore campgrounds or houses at night while looking for food. After it discovers that people keep ‘filling up the plate’ with garbage, pet food or bird seed, it will return again with less fear. Eventually, the real problem bear loses its fear of people, and that is when it often has to be destroyed.”

Steven Dobey, the Black Bear Program Coordinator for KDFWR points out that “Although bears can become very tolerant of humans, they are wild animals and their actions can be unpredictable. When a 430-pound bear has been taught to associate people with food, and shows little fear of humans, our management options are limited.”

“People must take responsibility for their actions and realize that feeding bears, intentionally or not, may directly result in the death of those animals,” warns Dobey. “Even worse, those people are creating situations that could pose serious risks to human safety.”

Everyone who works with bears agrees that the key is keeping the bear away from the food in the first place. Efforts to trap and relocate bears often only succeed in creating a new problem somewhere else, and hazing with rubber bullets or pepper spray depends on how motivated the bear is. A hungry bear will take a chance.

Since the trouble with problem bears involves everyone, the community meeting is open to everyone in the tri-state area. The agenda includes a talk by Dobey on bear behavior and problem bears, a program by Beeler about the national park’s role, and a question and answer session that includes Middlesboro Police Chief Jeff Sharpe and Cumberland Gap Chief Ranger Dirk Wiley.

The meeting will be held at the Visitor Center at Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. For more information, call Jenny Beeler at (606) 246-1113 or Dirk Wiley at (606) 246-1054.