If you’re a resident of Plumas County, keep the “pic-a-nic baskets” away from Yogi Bear.
“We are trying to do a pre-emptive strike” on the issue of increased bear activity, county Fish and Game Commissioner Ron Horton told the Plumas County Board of Supervisors during its March 4 meeting.
“I live in Graeagle and a bear came into a lady’s kitchen,” remarked California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Terry Weist said. “If they can get all of their calories from a garbage can, why stay in the woods?” Weist said.
Both Horton and Weist encouraged the supervisors to strengthen Plumas County’s current legislation regarding trash containers and wildlife. According to their research, other jurisdictions that have levied stiff fines for breaking trash laws have significantly decreased the bear problem.
Horton and Weist made it clear that bears are no longer relocated. Rather, they are killed—a reality that prompted the slogan “A fed bear is a dead bear,” which the commission features on an educational brochure.
For example, a woman had been feeding a local bear but when she went out of town, the bear tore into her neighbor’s vehicle, barn and home looking for food.
“You signed the bear’s death warrant when you fed it,” Horton told the woman who objected to the bear being killed.
At the end of the meeting, the Plumas County Board directed staff to work with the county’s Fish and Game Commission as well as the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to draft an ordinance to remedy the matter.
Read the full story at the Plumas County News.