Woman seeks help for bears at Lake Tahoe

Gail Turle is asking the Nevada Department of Transportation to erect bear-crossing signs along U.S. Highway 50 in the Spooner Summit area on Tahoe's east shore.

On Oct. 31, a mother bear was hit and killed by a vehicle there. Four hours later, her two cubs were struck and killed by cars in the same area.

Turle said the area is a major bear-crossing area, and other known such areas in the Tahoe Basin could qualify for similar signs, too.

"There are deer-crossing signs, elk-crossing signs and other animal-crossing signs. Why not that?" she asked. "I think a bear-crossing sign would make people slow down a little."

While highway crossings remain a problem for bears at Tahoe, a group reported success in its inaugural season to reduce bear-human conflicts in neighborhoods there.

The Bear Preservation League sends trained volunteers to problem areas in an effort to get residents to keep garbage, dog food bowls and other food away from bears.

"So many neighborhoods got going, getting their whole neighborhood bear-proofed," said Ann Bryant, a founding member of the league. "The communities have been very supportive of us."

The group formed after California Department of Fish and Game agents' controversial killing of a mother bear and her cub on Tahoe's west shore in August 1998.

The state agency has lacked the manpower to respond to bear complaints unless it was to kill problem animals.

But under an agreement reached after the 1998 killings, the agency now sends league volunteers to problem areas to educate residents about ways to reduce bear conflicts.

Problem bears now are killed as a final resort.

"It's been more successful that we ever dreamed it would be," Bryant said. "We were the first to do it anywhere. It's a program that works. We're only going to grow."

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