Washoe County bear diversion efforts to get $55,000

Washoe County is preparing to ante up $55,000 to educate

people about this year's unusual number of bears showing up where humans

live.

The effort includes a community-wide education and awareness program and

installation of wildlife-proof trash enclosures, starting at Davis Creek

State Park.

An ordinance imposing fines on residents who leave garbage outside without

bear-proof cans could be considered later.

"We don't like to use penalties as a way to solve problems, but in this

case, we need to have some level of penalties, probably, in order to deal

with this issue," Assistant County Manager Dave Childs said Tuesday at a

county commission meeting.

Efforts will focus on encouraging residents not to leave trash outdoors or

feed bears and include the special cans at Davis Creek park.

Officials do not believe the bear population is increasing, but that a lack

of food is forcing the bears to "migrate down to where they can get a free

lunch," Childs said.

"We may have to kill more bears just because they already have a behavioral

pattern," Childs said. "To change that pattern, we will do whatever we can

in terms of diversion, rubber bullets and things like that to get them back

in the woods.

Chairman Robert Larkin said as a boy in Yellowstone National Park he

encountered a bear, apparently attracted by apples from motorists.

"I was starting to look like a little bit of an apple to that bear," Larkin

said. "I didn't like that."