AP reports:
EFFORT, Pa. Dec 5, 2005 — A black bear camped out under the porch of a home where four children live and near where 20 kids wait for the school bus will be removed by state wildlife officers, officials said Monday.
Residents of Chestnuthill Township had suspected for several days that a bear was in their midst after they saw their trash cans tampered with. But it wasn't until two children happened upon the bear on Sunday that its exact whereabouts became clear.
Read the whole thing here.
Effort is in the Poconos, not all that far from our mountain place. We've had close encounters with black bears ourselves and they can be pretty scary. Worse, they're incredibly destructive, tearing things to pieces in their search for food [and with these omnivores, almost anything seems to count as food]. The State Game Commission estimates that there are about 133,000 black bears roaming Penns' Woods. For ex-urbanites like us -- that's something to worry about.
I know some of you are thinking -- that's what happens when humans encroach on the domains of wonderful wilderness critters. But that's not really the case. In this part of the State it's the bears [and panthers and coyotes and all sorts of dangerous beasts] that are expanding their range as the forest proliferates over what was once farmland. As Peter Huber has long been pointing out, urban sprawl, by transforming farmland into residential areas, actually promotes reforestation.
For all things black and bearish check out this site.
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