The common growl from Yogi the Bear lovers is, “Garbage, garbage, garbage. You got to keep your garbage away from the bears.” From this they are telling people that too many bears in New Jersey isn’t the problem. The problem is people have to learn to live with bears and take all the “necessary precautions” to avoid bear encounters at your home.

But is that realistic and is it working? Bruce Scruton of the New Jersey Herald says Sparta Police Chief Ernest Reigstad thinks it’s unrealistic to ask people to do everything and still not expect bears to come around.

“They know. Even if you lock the garage, they’ll try to get in,” he said. Reigstad echoed the sentiment, noting officers have responded to homes where “the owners took every realistic safeguards not to lure bears and they still get trouble.”

He said it’s a lot to ask of homeowners to bleach their grills every time they use them “and I’m not convinced that’s the answer. It’s fairly obvious the population of bears is increasing.

“You may not see the problem down in the big cities, but we see it here. There’s 10 times, 20 times the number of bears we’re dealing with now than in the past.”

All three chiefs said the state must find a way to reduce the bear population. “I don’t think the problems are because we’re building more in their area,” Reigstad said. “Our town hasn’t grown very much over the past few years. There’s just more bears.”

Local authorities believe it is only a matter of time before a person will get seriously injured from a bear attack, fearing it may be a child.

Tom Remington

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