Laurel Rematore| OPINION COLUMNIST

John Boyles column of Humans should be euthanized, not bears, brought out the need for people to become savvy about how to store food when in bear country and directed readers to BearWise.org, an excellent source for the basics of co-existing with bears.

Boyle focused on reactions to a recent bear encounter that resulted in human injury. After gaining access to the inside of a family's tent, a bear scratched a 3-year-old girl and her mother. The father was able to scare the bear from the tent and campsite, but only after several attempts. Wildlife biologists successfully captured the bear that was responsible, and due to the risk to human safety, the bear was humanly euthanized.

In this case, when the news media sensationalized this negative humanbear interaction as an attack, it sent the wrong message. Usually, when bears rip into tents and scratch people, they have learned to expect food as a reward.

More: Great Smokies rangers: Bear euthanized after ripping tent, scratching child and mother

According to National Park Service bear management staff, two or three bears have to be killed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park each year. The reason for these bears deaths can almost always be traced back to food.

When people hear the slogans garbage kills bears or a fed bear is a dead bear, they may think that if bears eat garbage, it gives them stomach issues and they die as a result.

The truth is much more complex and gruesome. When bears get access to the food humans eat and feed their pets, bears come to expect this kind of food, which is often much easier for them to obtain than their natural diets of nuts and berries.

More: Man likely killed by bear attack in Great Smoky Mountains National Park: autopsy report

Bears have a powerful sense of smell 100 times as many olfactory sensors as we have so the aroma of food at a campsite and even inside a tent is definitely going to attract them. But they have often learned to seek this kind of food in park gateway communities.

Bears have excellent long-term memory and a highly evolved ability to make connections. They eat what is readily available and teach their young what they have learned about obtaining food. When they can more easily access the food that humans eat and feed to their pets, they become food conditioned and their conflict behavior escalates.

When a bear hurts someone which naturally happens when a large, clawed animal rummages for a snack wildlife managers often must kill the bear because it has become a threat. Rehabilitating a food-conditioned bear is extremely challenging, and transporting the bear to another location and then releasing it has been shown to have mixed results.

No one wants to kill these regional icons or see them killed. Drawn in part by the chance to see a live bear, over 14 million people visit the park annually, and gateway community populations are increasing. If we humans are not willing to change our behavior, we will be putting many more bears at risk to becoming food conditioned and potentially being euthanized due to conflict with humans.

More: NC Wildlife biologists: Bear that attacked couple on Blue Ridge Parkway climbed onto car

Some gateway city and county officials are moving in a positive direction with new road signs that raise awareness about stashing your trash. But these leaders also need to provide specially designed bear-resistant containers and strictly enforce proper food storage in them throughout all park gateway communities and any other developed areas where black bears live.

Because people traveling into the area are not always aware that they need to change their food-storage behaviors, officials must further require signage to raise awareness and instruct visitors about the BearWiseBasics throughout these communities especially at vacation rental companies where visitors may be much less informed than locals about proper food storage. They are:

Never feed or approach bears

Secure food, garbage, and recycling

Remove bird feeders when bears are active

Never leave pet food outdoors

Clean and store grills

Alert neighbors to bear activity.

More: Word from the Smokies: Bodacious Bear to help BearWise Taskforce raise funds for education

Id like to quote a line from Richard Powers best-seller "Overstory:" People arent the apex species they think they are. Other creatures bigger, smaller, slower, faster, older, younger, more powerful call the shots, make the air, and eat sunlight. Without them, nothing.

It's time for society to prioritize bears importance and ensure they are not fed intentionally or unintentionally. I am a part of the Smokies BearWisetask force, and on a recent Zoom call a fellow member suggested we should declare a state of wildlife emergency. I agree.

Laurel Rematore isCEO ofGreat Smoky Mountains Association.

More:
Opinion: More bears will be put at risk because of human behavior - Citizen Times