More hassles over black bears at Lake Tahoe

So far, several critics in the Kingsbury area of Stateline say the answer is "no."

The state delivered a bear trap to the Lake Village Condominium Complex in Stateline last Friday in an attempt to capture four bears that have been raiding garbage cans.

But the only thing the state of Nevada has caught with the trap so far is grief, as area residents rise in protest to protect their bears.

"These bears are just going through the trash; they're not hurting anything," said Chris, a Lake Village resident who didn't want his last name used. "It's a mom bear and three cubs, and I see them around all the time. If they trap these bears, odds are they're going to kill them. I know some people who live around here have been springing the trap at night so no bears get caught."

Bear management has become a hot issue in the Tahoe Basin since two bears were destroyed in the Homewood area a week ago.

In that incident, a vacation resident reported the bears damaging his property, and California Fish and Game officials came out and trapped a mother bear and her cub, later destroying them.

But bear management policy is a little different on the Nevada side. If the bears in Lake Village are captured they will be relocated, according to Nevada Division of Wildlife spokesman Dave Rice.

"Usually we try to use a hazing technique, where we attempt to scare the bear into not returning," Rice said. "We relocate the bear a few miles away, then use pepper spray and rubber bullets when we release it. The idea is to make it so unpleasant that the bear does not return."

Nevada's "Scared Straight" policy differs from California's, where Fish and Game is mandated by law to destroy those animals which have been classified as "nuisance bears."

"Our approach depends in part on the bear," Rice said. "I'm not going to tell you that we never put a bear down. Once they learn where the food is, and they've figured out how to rip doors off their hinges, then we have a responsibility to people who might be in danger."

According to Nevada Wildlife, six bears were destroyed in the period of July 1997 to July 1998 - two for public safety reasons. They relocated 15 bears during that same period.

But are black bears really dangerous? There has been only one report of a bear attack in northern Nevada over the past two decades. In 1992, a man in the Spooner Summit area was feeding a bear from the tailgate of his pickup truck, and the bear struck him in the face.

"The guy was eating his lunch, and this bear just walked up to him," Rice said. "So the guy starts feeding the bear. But a problem arose when the guy ran out of food. The bear was still hungry, so it rose up on its hind paws and swiped him in the face.

"The guy was quite proud of what he had lived through, but I told him that he was very foolish. He could have lost his whole face."

And such is the crux of the problem, according to one Lake Village resident, who lives about 300 yards from the state's bear trap on South Rubicon Trail.

"You get these idiot vacationers who don't know any better, and they come home drunk from the casino at night and want to pet the bears," he said. "These people leave garbage out, and of course bears are going to come around. The bears are only doing what they do best; eat. It's the people who should know better."

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