Trash is starting to become the tourist attraction of Lake Tahoe, while bears are being driven into town and even inside people's homes, looking for food. And if they're not in town or raiding kitchen homes, there's not much they can do but rely on garbage for food.
Thing is, bears freely roaming around also pose a threat to the public. For the second time in just one week, Nevada officials have captured a bear and, in the interest of the safety of the public, euthanized it.
The female adolescent bear was reported to have broken into two houses in Kingsbury, to look for food Aug. 28. Like a burglar caught in the act, the bear was captured and killed.
Prior to the incident, a male bear nine years of age was also caught searching for food, not inside the kitchen of a local home, but in a dumpster along Incline Village on the North Shore. Like the bear that raided the two homes, the nine-year-old male was caught and killed.
These incidents were, according to NDOW Public Information Officer Chris Healy, too dangerous that relocating the bears wasn't even an option.
The local bear population is beginning to "learn some bad habits," officials say.
But what's causing these sudden bear raids is actually the trash left by people lying around the area. A little over two months ago after the Fourth of July, 300 people with the League to Save Lake Tahoe volunteered to take part in a clean-up along nine shoreline locations, and picked up about 1,600 pounds of trash which also included 4,053 cigarette butts. That is, however, a mere six percent of the lake's shore.
In addition, a study also revealed that among people-and-bear conflicts in the Tahoe Basin, 95 percent were linked with trash, garbage and food just left lying around, near the bears.
The killing at Kingsbury reports the fifth bear euthanized by NDOW this year, as an act to protect the public from harm.
"We hate having to do this but a bear entering a house is a dangerous bear and the Nevada Department of Wildlife is obligated to manage the situation," Healy said.
Photo: Matti Mattila | Flickr
