BEARLY TOLERABLE: Being a son of the great state of New Jersey, I’ve been reading about the species rivalry that is developing up in the northern counties: the bears versus the humans. Over the past 30 years or so, a whole lot of people – especially the Baby Boom people – have left the more crowded suburbs surrounding New York and Newark, for the great undeveloped expanses of the northwestern realms. They wanted trees and mountains and big plots of land, and they got it. But now they’re complaining because they got something else – too many bears. The bear population has shot way up — and guess why? Because people bring with them lots of tasty and nutritious garbage, a reliable year-round food source. So the bears are mixing it up with the noveau locals . . . big time. No one has gotten killed yet, but some scary bear-human encounters have occurred. Bears have crashed into kitchens and raided the fridge, have killed dogs and other small pets, and have even cornered children (luckily, they’ve always retreated when an incensed human mother arrived on the scene).
So, the locals are calling on government to do something (ironic, in that one of the big reasons why many people moved way out to the sticks was their dislike of government). Most specifically, they want the State to organize and allow bear hunting seasons, as to thin out those nasty bruins. But, there is also a pro-bear faction (who generally don’t live out in bear country) that is against any violence against the big brown things. They say that people out in the sticks should be more careful about storing their garbage and protecting their pets. Hey, they reason, the bears were there first. When you squat on someone else’s property, you can’t complain about their bad habits.
I sort-of agree with this point of view. A lot of people from my generation had this dream about moving close to nature when they were young. Once they made it in the world, they decided to act out that fantasy. But the law of unintended consequences bit them in the behind. Their accumulated presence messed up the balance of life out in the forests. Bears, just like any other form of life, have taken advantage of a change in the environment that gives them more reliable access to calories, and they are thus raising more children as a result. Humanity isn’t the only species that believes deep down inside that the world needs more of it. Mosquitos and cockroaches clearly strive to flood every nook and cranny of the planet with its members, and now bears are doing the same thing.
Because no one thought what the side effects might be of thousands of families moving into new homes up in the wooded highlands, the burgeoning bear population is sending intrepid wanders out into the older suburbs, and people are seeing bears where they haven’t been sighted for a hundred years. We might soon have to watch out for bears here in suburban Essex County, just a few miles from Newark. Hey, thanks all you former yuppies who needed to get away from it all. Now we have to watch out for renegade muggers and house thieves from the city, and renegade bears from the sticks.
Personally, I’m a vegetarian, and I believe in leaving animals alone if at all possible. But if a hunt would put some fear back into the species and avoid having a child get mauled, then maybe it should be allowed. I have been face-to-face with bears on their turf only once, while hiking up in Wawayanda Park. I was pretty scared after seeing the third one, but luckily I met up with a park ranger and some other hikers who I convoyed with back to the parking lot. The three bears that I inadvertently got close to were pretty mellow. None of them came after me. They looked at me, but didn’t do anything as I turned and speed-walked away from them. But these were probably wilderness bears; supposedly the ones that live near houses learn that people often carry food with them, and thus become more aggressive. Ah yes, they pick up our own bad habits.
The New Jersey bear crisis is just another fine mess that humans have created. Even with occasional hunts and better garbage enclosures and fences (ha, move from the city to get away from security fences against crooks, and you have to put up security fences against bears), most likely there will still be a lot more bears around than there used to be. People living in their rural dream homes are just gonna have to get used to it. Bears are the cockroaches of the exurbs. Maybe someday humankind will learn to think ahead about the side effects of a big change in living arrangements.