The Bears are Back
Free Program at Bretzfelder Park
Conflicts between black bears and humans are on the rise in New Hampshire, especially as the area’s bears seek food after a long winter. Backyard birdfeeders and accessible garbage bins make easy pickings for hungry bears, and can lead to problems for both bears and people.
Join Nancy Comeau and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests on May 15 to learn more about bears and how to avoid human-bear conflicts. The free program will begin at 7 pm at Bretzfelder Park.
While many people enjoy seeing bears at their backyard feeders, bears are wild animals and can quickly become a nuisance. Although shy and non-aggressive animals by nature, black bears will seek food from human sources when natural foods are unavailable.
About Nancy Comeau
Comeau, a Human / Black Bear Specialist for the USDA Wildlife Services for nearly two decades specializes in nuisance bears. She works in with the New Hampshire Bear Program, a partnership between Wildlife Services and the New Hampshire Fish & Game Department. During her graduate studies at Plymouth State University, Comeau researched nuisance black bears in five northern New Hampshire communities. She received her B.S.in Wildlife Ecology and her M.S. in Environmental Science and Policy.
Comeau’s work with Wildlife Services covers Coos, Grafton and Carroll counties. Wildlife Services provides public education, technical assistance as well as the use of multiple non-lethal deterrent methods to reduce human/bear conflicts. She has been mitigating human-bear conflicts within New Hampshire communities since 2004.
About the Program
Natural food resources for NH’s bears were abundant on the landscape in 2017 but plummeted to minimal availability in 2018. They’ll discuss why and how that will impact NH bears in 2019 and what to expect in the upcoming season.
The program will cover basic bear biology, attractants that bring bears into communities and how to prevent unwanted visits from bears. Most importantly, Comeau engages the public in education programs about bears and works one on one with people on how to avoid conflicts and learn how to live with and appreciate NH’s black bears.
Bretzfelder Park
Owned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (www.forestsociety.org), Bretzfelder Park is managed in cooperation with the town of Bethlehem. The Park, bequeathed to the Forest Society in 1984 by Helen Bretzfelder in memory of her father, Charles, houses a classroom, educational trails, a pond, and several picnic sites.
For more information, please visit www.therocks.org, e-mail info@therocks.org, or call 603-444-6228.
The images, and content contained within this article appear courtesy of the above mentioned organization. The content appears in part, or in whole, as a submission from the public relations department of the organization. For information on how you may be able to submit to our website for community events or press release news posts such as these, please visit our community bulletin board and public relations sections on our policy page.