A poster educating visitors on bear safety hangs outside a store in Old Forge. Photo by Breannan O’Hara.

Black bears are a common sight in Old Forge, whether they are diving into a dumpster or prowling the town. They easily use human food sources and can become more habituated with frequent access, increasing human-bear conflict. As a popular vacation spot, local residents are seeking an ordinance to deter tourists from feeding bears after witnessing this behavior regularly over the years. 

Since 2017, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has euthanized 194 bears statewide due to human-bear conflict or humane dispatch for diseases and injuries, according to DEC records.

On Aug. 11, a female bear and her two cubs were added to this database, which sparked outrage and fueled conservations on how to mitigate the problem of humans feeding bears in the town of Webb.

As wildlife encounters with bears have increased, the DEC developed a system for categorizing conflict behavior in the 2006 and 2011 versions of its Black Bear Response Manual. This system recommends appropriate actions based on the severity of the behavior, with euthanasia as the final resort. 

About 80% of these conflicts are settled with bear safety basics, according to the organization BearWise. a program of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. 

“Every year there are bears euthanized in the Old Forge area because they become habituated to go into the campgrounds and get used to the people and food sources there,” said Matt Kurg, director of Environmental Conservation Officers and Investigators for the New York State Police Benevolent Association. “This happens every year with bears in the Adirondacks, it’s pretty common.”

The call

The weeks prior to the August bear euthanizations, the bears showed a tendency to utilize non-natural food sources both accidental and intentional. 

According to the DEC, there were reports of the bears frequently visiting Nick’s Lake Campground in Old Forge where they tried to enter at least one car and obtained food from campers and unsecured trash. 

On Aug. 11, an Environmental Conservation police officer euthanized the bears based on their increasingly aggressive behavior that DEC deemed to be a potential risk to public safety. 

 Andrew MacDuff, region 6 natural resources manager, said there were several factors that led to the euthanasia. 

“The adult bear had been given a class one rating because of her continued and escalating behaviors and once they get that rating, that indicates that the bear needs to be removed from the population,” MacDuff said. “In regard to the cubs, there’s information in the south to show that cubs can learn the behavior too. The position at the time was to put them down as well.”

Kurg said the DEC did the best they could with staffing but the final choice regarding the bears’ euthanasia was up to their wildlife biologists; the officers are just the ones responding to it. 

“I know that our officer that responded did not want to shoot the bears. I mean he had no desire too,” Kurg said. “He was told by our wildlife biologist in region six, that these bears were a class one nuisance bear and to euthanize them if they came back out.”

Residents take action 

Following the incident, many Old Forge residents voiced their frustration over some people’s, especially tourists, irresponsible behavior around wildlife. 

Meg Ulrich, a resident of Old Forge, said the day of the August incident was busy in town. 

“The bears were on side streets, being followed by tourists who were videoing and snapping photos,” Ulrich said. “She treed her cubs at one point -common protective behavior – but not before stomping and threatening to charge – also common protective measures mama bears take. The tourists proceeded to throw apples at the cubs.”

She said the female bear was in town quite a bit and managed to stay out of harm’s way for most of the summer until she began to be stalked and taunted by tourisits. 

“These people had been spoken with, yelled at, streets blocked off by locals- to no avail,” Ulrich said. “We also shoo deer away and beep the horn at people luring them – often receiving a middle finger or harsh words for our trouble.”

Lisa Bolton, another local resident, also said she has witnessed tourists harassing other wildlife and had said to them to stop and “all you get is flipped off and sworn at.”

“I have letters from people who are genuinely sick of such nonsense,” Bolton said. “I’m currently working on a town ordinance to be placed that local officials can give fines, I think something will transpire.” 

Ulrich said she remembers when the town garbage dump used to be a prime spot for black bear sightings many years ago but it is now a transfer station. She said despite the progress that has been made environmentally, “there are many who remember that and still think wildlife is here for their enjoyment.”

“It’s an ongoing frustration for those of us who are year-round residents who see the cubs early in the spring and watch them grow and change,” Ulrich said. “Seeing them chased and killed breaks your heart.”

High visitor turnover hinders enforcement  

In the summer, Old Forge is a popular destination for visitors which makes it an attractive site for wildlife as well. Kurg said the DEC tries to educate the public and work with people but it is difficult in vacation locations. 

”It’s very very difficult, especially in Old Forge where you get a different group of campers every week,” Krug said. “So if you were at one house and educated people the first week of June, well the second week, you’d have a whole group of different people there. These tourist areas are pretty bad.” 

Ulrich said the community has dealt with similar issues in the past and that “people do what they want and are gone before the consequences come to fruition.”

“There are signs, newspaper warnings and the theater runs the ‘a fed bear is a dead bear’ media before movies but people are still constantly feeding deer junk food out of car windows and stopping traffic to watch bears and often creating dangerous traffic situations and public safety hazards,” Ulrich said. “If there’s a bear, you give it space and let it go on its way.”

Despite recent events in the town, Brendan Quirion, the DEC’s Big Game Biologist, said “bears tend to be more scared of humans than we are of them.”

The DEC continues to remind the public that feeding wildlife, including bears, is prohibited and that bears may become more aggressive if they have frequent access to food sources. The agency urges New Yorkers to follow the BearWise basics to help keep bears wild and reduce the likelihood of human-bear interactions.

Addressing the conflict 

A respectful coexistence with black bears requires a combination of preventative strategies and safe response measures.

During a Sept. 10 town of Webb Board Meeting, many local residents showed support for a new proposed local law prohibiting feeding and harassment of wild animals but there were some concerns. 

“Don’t you think if someone got caught three times it should be more than a $1,500 fine. The other day I watched a mother trying to put her child on a deer’s back by Maple Ridge to get a photo and when you say anything to them all they do it get angry with you,” a resident said. “I think the fine could be a little steeper if you get caught more than twice. We’re killing animals for nonsense.”

Ulrich said she thinks the “threat of fines might deter negligent behavior more,” but most places have understaffed police forces and forest rangers, and that the DEC is not present enough to observe and enforce.

“We have like a 25% reduction in staffing from the 1970s-year levels,” Kurg said. “The fish and wildlife portion of our job is only 42% of what we do now.”

Hazing the bears, Kurg added, which is either chasing away or using a non permanent pain stimulus, when they are getting into garbage and other spaces is often effective for him. However, the DEC “does not have the manpower for that currently.”

MacDuff said they encourage the public to enjoyably view all wildlife but bear wise practices need to be strictly followed. 

“If the public can follow the guidance there, 99.9% of our bear problems could be avoided,” MacDuff said. “We ask the public to be familiar and mindful with them and practice the basics at every opportunity.”

Once a bear has learned to associate humans with food it is doubtful they unlearn that behavior, which makes relocation impractical, “essentially passing the problem on to another community” and that sanctuaries either have “too many bears already and will not accept more,” MacDuff said. 

This leaves the solution up to the public and residential community to take the appropriate precautions and safety measures to, Duff said, “keep bears wild and keep people safe.”