Bear/human interface topic of campaign

The California Department of Fish and Game hopes a public information campaign will make it harder for wildlife to dine on everything from bacon and hamburger grease to orange peels and chocolate bars.

Using Lake Tahoe as its staging area, the department officially launched its "Keep Me Wild -- Stash your Food and Trash" campaign to educate visitors and residents about the hazards of not properly storing or disposing food in and around forests.

"If wild animals become addicted to sources of human food, they'll do anything to get more and lose their natural fear of humans," said senior wildlife biologist Doug Updike, who helped launch the campaign Tuesday at the Lake Tahoe Branch of the El Dorado County Public Library.

The $100,000 campaign is a pre-emptive approach by the department to prevent the need to issue warnings and respond to residents' complaints. A combination of community meetings, brightly colored "Keep Me Wild" posters and stickers, a Web site -- www.keepmewild.org -- and public service advertising will be used to educate residents, campers and tourists about how to prevent wildlife from accessing human food and garbage.

Fish and Game has also identified Mammoth Lakes and Monrovia in Southern California as areas where human and bear habitat overlap.

Much of the campaign is based on common sense, said Banky Curtis, Fish and Games regional manager.

Once bears discover food sources in campgrounds or residential areas, they will abandon their routine of foraging for food in the woods, Curtis said.

"Bears do what bears do. They like to eat. When we provide alternatives for them, then we have problems," he said.

In one such problem in the fall, a family of bears repeatedly broke into a Spring Creek tract cabin. The owners of the cabin were granted a permit to have the bears killed.

The killings led to meetings with Fish and Game and the Forest Service. A policy was instituted that prevents the state from issuing bear predation permits until the Forest Service is notified.

Ann Bryant of the Tahoma-based BEAR League said last fall's killing of a mother bear and her two cubs may have stepped up the efforts to get the word out about bears, encroaching human populations and how the two can live together.

"This campaign brings it back to human responsibility, rather than the bears," Bryant said Tuesday. "It's encouraging that Fish and Game is putting the responsibility back in the hands of humans."

Tips on bear-proofing homes and campsites

-- Store garbage in bear-proof containers or store it in your garage until pick up day

-- Keep food indoors or in airtight and odor-free containers

-- Put away picnic leftovers; clean barbecue grills

-- Keep pet food and bird feeders away at night

-- Pick up fallen fruit from trees

-- Remove fragrant cosmetics and other attractants around campsites

-- Install or request bear-proof trash containers

-- Source California Department of Fish and Game, www.keepmewild.org