North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Angel de los Andes" <zapala@hotmail.com>]

I have had very little experience with bears, although they are around and I 
see them periodically.  My orchard, house, and outbuildings are in the 
middle of an open area surrounded by fields - and bears (unlike nocturnal 
deer) like cover.

A friend not too far away has plenty of them in his orchard. He can see them 
from his deck in the apple trees - if there's only 2-3 apples on the tree 
and they are high up, a bear will climb to get them breaking many branches 
en route.  He shoots at them and that scares them away.  But they come back.

I would never stake a dog in an orchard so it can't get away.  It has to be 
able to run or defend itself.  A bear can tear a dog in two with just one 
swoop of his paw. My father used to hunt bears and he lost more than one 
hound that way. They are vicious and need space - stay away -they are not 
meant to be pets even if they're on your back porch.

A call to the Heath Orchards in Stanstead, Quebec, might help you get some 
useful information.  The orchard was sold last year by Peter Health to Chris 
Rawlings - they are in the phone book.

I think if there is a big bear population in your orchard, there is little 
to do except poison them or shoot them - I don't think there's a
humane solution.  But like deer, for every one you shoot, 5 more are waiting 
in the woods to come out.

Here in Vermont, the State Fish and Game Service has done a very poor job of 
controlling the deer herd, particularly, antlerless deer - the females.  
They are protected during the regular rifle season and can't be shot, and 
they have multiplied out of all reason and proportion.

I think the real answer to the bear and deer problem rests with maintaining 
control of the size of the bear/deer population.  Deer here are like 
cockroaches - they are everywhere, especially, does.

Regards from the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont
where it was 42 at 6 AM this morning.

Armando Bona


>From: "victoria l. caron" <vicaron@gis.net>
>Reply-To: nafex@egroups.com
>To: nafex@egroups.com
>Subject: Re: [nafex] Bears in orchards
>Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 09:54:51 +0000
>
>There was a woman in Tenn that was killed by a bear this spring. I have 
>saved
>both news stories on my computer. (Some of you may know that I have a 
>limited
>experience dealing with bears while 'exploring'.) While both of these 
>attacks
>'appeared to be unprovoked' I am a firm believer that what we consider
>'unprovoked' and what a sow w/cub considers 'unprovoked' are two different
>things. Anyway, in the absence of a strong fencing system including dogs
>(within), my best idea would be to see if local game authorities are 
>willing to
>trap and relocate bears. This would have to be a situation, though, that is
>justified by potential income loss or a real safety threat. If only a few 
>trees
>are threatened, dogs penned in or staked out with trees are not to be
>underestimated as a deterrent provided they are serious about their job. 
>This
>is not your typical pet. For safety's sake, whenever  bears could show up, 
>be
>noisy, be alert, give them what they want most - a chance to avoid you!
>Vic in northern NH (41 degrees this AM)
>
>Claude Jolicoeur wrote:
>
> > Some of you might have heard about a bear attact on an athlete near 
>Quebec
> > City a few weeks ago. It seems that the bear population has been 
>increasing
> > regularely during last years - at least in this area. Most years, bears 
>pay
> > me a visit in my orchard, eat some apples, and leave a few traces of 
>their
> > passage (the sort of trace you can walk on, slip on, etc...) - these 
>visits
> > do not bother me too much as I can share a few apples with them. Some
> > years, however, the situation gets quite worse: years where there are 
>very
> > little wild fruits because of bad conditions during flowering, for 
>example,
> > the bears get hungry and come in much greater number to eat apples. They
> > can then do quite a lot of damage to the trees.
> >
> > Unfortunately, I expect this year might be a bad year for bears - all 
>the
> > condition are there for them to come in great number for my apples.
> >
> > I was wondering if the fishing line that was proposed for deer control
> > could be efficient to prevent the bears from coming in the orchard.
> >
> > Any others on the list have tried something about bears?
> >
> > Claude Jolicoeur, Quebec.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Failed tests, classes skipped, forgotten locker combinations.
> > Remember the good 'ol days
> > http://click.egroups.com/1/7076/0/_/423498/_/964040130/
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>

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