What about the bears?

A meeting of public officials and law enforcement was held Tuesday in the St. Mary Parish Council meeting room to discuss bears.
Hosted by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, with attendance by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the session was informational for those involved in dealing with the Louisiana Black Bear, for which the Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge was founded.
Maria Davidson, LDWF’s Large Carnivore Program manager, began, “I sent an email out after a flurries of emails and exchanges and social media posts and phone calls that made it pretty clear to me that even the local authorities and maybe at some point the state people did not have a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities. Human and bear conflict is something that is hugely insurmountable for any one entity.”
Davidson presented an understanding of what each involved agency does “and also to clear out some of the animosity that I know I’m feeling in my office from not only residents but also officials.”
She said state statute that authorizes LDWF to manage wildlife in Louisiana also allows local agencies “the ability to take management action against the bears. For instance, if the Sheriff’s Office or Patterson police feel the need to shoot a bear…you are in your right to do that. You have legislative authority to do that. We always assumed that the local authorities wanted Wildlife and Fisheries to handle these problems. Nope, you certainly don’t have to, you can take care of managing bears within your borders if that’s what you choose to do.”
Often Davidson is asked by residents, “When is Wildlife and Fisheries going to do something?”
“We, as management authority, all I have authority over is management of those animals,” Davidson said. “That’s all I can do. I have no authority over or responsibility over garbage in St. Mary Parish, Patterson, Berwick or Franklin. None whatsoever.”
St. Mary Parish was granted funds, apart from any other parish in the state, to address garbage issues from bears in the amount of nearly $1 million. Also, the same amount was funded along the coastal habitat for a full-time biologist that addresses human and bear conflicts.
The biologist follows the state bear management plan in handling conflicts, ranging from advice to assistance, and may also set traps.
Eighty-five bears have been caught in St. Mary Parish alone, roughly half the estimated population locally. Many were relocated northward and elsewhere, in hopes they would rehome there, but they often return to the parish. Of the 85, 17 were killed.
St. Mary Parish Government, Patterson and Berwick have enacted ordinances defining ways to keep nuisance bears out of, particularly, garbage.
Patterson Mayor Rodney Grogan said the city adopted an ordinance addressing bear-human contact issues and prevention that is working well, particularly since bears are moving farther northward and across the railroad track and US 90. He said warnings have been given, and some citations.
Homeowners who aren’t cooperating with the law can be reported by the biologist to Patterson officials. Grogan said “more and more” videos of bears in the town are appearing. He added that he worries about the safety of children.
St. Mary Parish Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange, noting the authority of law enforcement to deal with bear problems, told Davidson, “You said you came in to assist us because we starting having a garbage problem. I look at it the other way around: The bears were on the (threatened) list and protected. So how can law enforcement go shoot a bear? The second thing was, because you were managing the bear population through all of those processes, that’s why Wildlife and Fisheries was called when we first started having these issues, people were complaining that bears were coming into residential areas…that’s how it got started. I don’t think it got started that we said hey, we have a garbage problem, we need your help. It was because of the bears, you’re in charge of managing (them.)”
LaGrange noted that LDWF provided a grant to the parish to hire its bear conflict officer, Catherine Siracusa.
“The next thing we did was work with you on bear-resistant carts for the garbage,” he continued. “We started working on getting that done with our solid waste haulers…in 2015 when we put out a (request for proposals) for a new contract, we worked with your office and designated areas south of US 90 from Patterson west, and we specified bear-resistant carts would be provided. I want to make sure we understood that…we came to the table because we wanted to help our citizens, but it also helped you because you’re in charge of managing the bears.”
Davidson agreed. “It became very evident to me that in order to resolve these problems there needed to be a change in garbage management, and that’s when I went to Bo and said let us help you,” she said.
Sheriff Blaise Smith said that while bear getting into garbage is a problem, the number of the animals being killed on US 90 is also severe. “Last two weeks, we’ve had three of them,” he said. “We were told don’t touch it, somebody will come pick it up and did almost that same day. The last couple laid out there three days, and we had people stopping and cutting (other) cars off.”
People were reportedly taking photos of or with the dead bears.
Davidson said the department needs data such as location and samples from the animal before disposal. Anyone taking parts from a dead bear, such as the paws, are in violation of law. A removal person usually comes out of Lafayette.
Sheriff’s Office Captain Jeremy Greene said deputies could move a bear body out of view to motorists, or bring it to the sheriff’s motor pool. He was asked to document the location it was killed before moved.
“We’re going to start taking a harder line in terms of the decision for individual bears,” Davidson said. “As the parish and the towns step up their efforts, I want to skim off the top of those bears that are so seriously habituated and food-conditioned that it doesn’t matter what we do they’re going to continue…we may not be able to correct it quickly, but if I remove those bears, and the residents’ do their part, and we don’t habituate future bears, then we’re stepping in the right direction. They just need to call us, and we can trap it, but when we trap them, we’re going to kill them.”
Davidson emphasized strongly that relocation for a bear “is a losing proposition for everyone involved. They’re going to do their very best to come home. They don’t always succeed…but they’ll do their level best to come home. They end up in stupid places…they end up in downtown Baton Rouge, downtown Lafayette. If they do manage to get back, then we’re dealing with the same bear with the same behaviors, but now we’ve taught him what a trap is.”
Younger bears have a better chance of rehoming away from the area, she said.
“Homeowners can do just about anything short of shooting the bear with actual ammunition,” Davidson said, such as chasing it off with vehicles, fireworks where legal and other non-lethal measures.
A bear that stays in the neighborhood does so because it “has never received any negative experience there,” Davidson said. Neighborhoods could start a sort of “bear watch” to run off nuisance bears, she said.
St. Mary Parish has the highest density bear population in Louisiana. The issue of garbage is being addressed, with St. Mary Parish Government and Pelican Waste in the process of providing bear-proof cans in key areas from Patterson to the Charenton Navigation and Drainage Canal.
In instances where a bear is in proximity of a school or some other place where people are gathered, law enforcement can shoot a bear if they feel it necessary for public safety.
Davidson added that the majority of nuisance bears are male, which is not the norm in other parts of Louisiana.
Deterrents such as electrical cages and mats, as well as rubber shotgun bullets used for “hazing” the animal, can be effective.
It was made clear that an actual aggressive bear threatening a person can be killed by a citizen.
St. Mary Office of Emergency Preparedness Director David Naquin said the rubber bullets were effective when the refuge was created.
“We have the ability to hunt (bears) in our management plan, and we want to see hunting opportunities offered for bears,” Davidson said, but that there is a lawsuit that must be settled first. She did not specify its intent.
Grogan said, “If the state can give us one person for each municipality, or for the east, west and so forth, that can go around and monitor (the problem areas.)”
The Sheriff’s Office dispatches to complaint calls, and wildlife agents will instruct residents to remove food sources such as bird or squirrel feeders, dog food and similar items. If unattended, further action can be taken.
Berwick Mayor Duval Arthur said efforts have been made to educate residents on how to avoid nuisance bears, but “they’re never going to go away.”