LETTERS FROM HOME: WHERE THE BEARS AND THE HUMAN BEINGS ROAM

May 19, 1994

Dear Leslie,

As if Bosnian children, rising interest rates, becoming a mother, not becoming a mother, establishing a new practice and leaving California after 20 years weren't enough, now DC is worried about bears.

As in Smokey The's evil twins.

Surveys show 92.5 percent of Americans hardly concern themselves with the danger of bears at all. We treated them like the Indians, evicted them from the places most manifestly our destiny to have, and subdivided the wilderness almost into oblivion.

But we need wilderness if we want bears.

Northern California is one of the few places where enough wildness still exists that bears -- ours are black bears -- still roam. We live opposite a mini-mountain named Bear Butte, and one question callers to KMUD's talk show ask is the best way to keep bears away from their houses and particularly their fruit trees. (The answer: Store your garbage inside the house, surround the trees with electric fences and be patient. Bears don't stay in one place for very long.

We haven't had any recent bear sightings here in town, but heard a story about the sheep ranch behind the hospital. Rancher killed a mountain lion for poaching. Plugged it with a pistol, treed him with dogs and finished him with a .22 rifle. Brave, foolhardy, illegal.

We went camping last weekend, and saw a sign at one of the state parks reminding visitors that bears aren't the cuddly creatures children snuggle with at night. "I hope we see one," DC said. A few moments later came the caveat: "But I hope we're in the car."

We saw a herd of elk, and egrets walked through a canyon with sheer 50-foot walls covered with probably 10 varieties of ferns. Next to the canyon was a meadow ariot with white wild irises. We hunted agates at a beach and even found some. The surf delivers a new supply daily.

But we and the bears left each other alone.

A couple of days later, DC gobbled up the front page story in one of the local weeklies about the increasing contact between humans and bears. The reasons: Human encroachment into bear territory, of course, and seems the berry and acorn season has been poor. Seems the herbicides used to control oak trees are eliminating one of the bears' primary foods.

A park ranger offered some advice to people who encounter a bear. He said the best thing to do is to stand still and avoid eye contact. Or recite the "Iliad," whichever's easier.

If the bear charges, you're supposed to lie still until it goes away. Bears can run 25 mph in short bursts, so outrunning one isn't an option.

Turns out bears also can break into cars, even locked trunks. I'm hoping DC didn't read that far.

The ranger told a story about a hiker who crossed paths with a mother bear and her cub. The mother warned the man to leave by mounting two or three false charges, but he unaccountably stood there taking pictures like a tourist at a zoo. The bear finally knocked him down but didn't hurt him much until the man moved his foot to avoid sliding down the hill. Somehow, the hiker survived.

All in all, DC doesn't have much to worry about. Bees claim more lives than bears do. The danger, as often, seems to be not bear behavior but human.

Love, Sam