ADDISON COUNTY — More and more Addison County residents are spotting bears on their properties, and they’re not alone.

A bear expert said county residents’ increasing reports of bears passing through backyards and rummaging in garbage cans are on par with what officials are hearing from Vermonters in other parts of the state. 

Vermont Fish & Wildlife Black Bear Project Leader Jaclyn Comeau said there are a few factors behind the increasingly common encounters, notably bears more often associating homes with food and the state’s bear population having bounced back in recent decades.

“We’re now getting reports of bears in parts of the Champlain Valley, so lots of Addison County, the Connecticut River Valley, and places where 40 years ago, 30 years ago, we just didn’t have many bears living,” Comeau said. “All these increased sightings are reflective of a change in the distribution of Vermont’s bear population.” 

That population had as recently as the 1970s been somewhat limited to the spine of the Green Mountains and the Northeast Kingdom, according to the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, or FWD. 

After settlers cleared much of Vermont for farmland resulting in habitat loss, and due to other factors, the state’s bear population reached its lowest point around the 1850s. Improvements in habitat and management efforts have led to a strong comeback in Vermont’s black bear population, Fish & Wildlife reports.

Now their numbers are higher than they have been in 200 years. 

“Our bear population has slowly been recovering and reclaiming the full extent of its former range,” Comeau explained. 

The state’s bear population has been largely stable since the mid-1990s, fluctuating between 4,000 and 7,500 — up for a few years then down for a few. 

“Within those undulations we get to some of these high points, which is where we’ve been at the last few years, and we do start to kind of feel the pressure of living with these animals and sharing the landscape,” Comeau said. 

The department in September estimated that Vermont’s bear population was at a five-year high of around 7,000 to 8,500 bears based on 2022 data. Today, bears can be found in every Vermont town except for the Lake Champlain Islands. 

“It’s a conservation success story, but it’s also highlighting that we have to consider ways that we can adjust our behaviors to better share the land with these animals,” Comeau said. “A lot of folks are seeing these bears, which is great, but a lot of times they’re seeing them in situations that are not great for the bears and not great for the people.” 

LOCAL BEAR ENCOUNTERS

Those situations include bears rifling through trash cans or getting into bird feeders and chicken coops. County residents have in recent weeks reported such incidents on social media, some of whom noting those instances marked the first time they’d seen a bear on their property. 

Vermont Game Warden Dale Whitlock said this year he’s received more calls than usual about bear sightings, particularly in parts of the county where bears have not been as prevalent in the past. 

“This is my 28th year as a game warden and this is the first year I’ve ever had bear sightings and bear conflicts all the way to (Lake Champlain),” he said. 

Whitlock noted that historically in Addison County bears have primarily been found in the mountain towns of Lincoln, Ripton and Bristol. 

“This year, they’re all over; Weybridge, Cornwall, and even as far west as Panton,” he said. 

The game warden said reports he’s received largely consist of bears getting into unsecured trash and bird feeders. 

“People get concerned because they’re not used to it but it’s nothing violent, public safety worthy or worrisome,” he explained.

Whitlock noted that black bears are generally shy creatures. 

“We’re very fortunate here in Vermont that the black bear is as mellow and timid as it is,” he said. “That being said, it’s a wild animal, and people need to give them their space.”  

Vermonters can be good neighbors to black bears by learning to co-exist with the creatures and taking steps to avoid attracting bears to their properties, Whitlock said. 

“Try not to treat every wild animal like a pest,” he said. “You are living in their backyard, and they were here before us.” 

The Independent heard from several Addison County residents who’ve had recent bear encounters. Among them was Mark Stefani, a Middlebury resident who noticed a bear on his Monroe Street property in early May. 

Stefani said at around 9:30 p.m. one evening, something set off a motion sensor light outside his home and he discovered the top of his bird feeder had been opened. 

He grabbed a flashlight and went onto the deck to investigate, eventually spotting a bear in a maple tree around 10-15 feet away. 

The bear came back down once Stefani turned off the light and went inside and was ultimately spooked off the property by Stefani making noise. 

Stefani said it was his first time seeing a bear near his home, which is located just off Court Street near the high school.

“Living so close to Route 7, I’ve never had any problems with bears in the past,” he said. 

Stefani said he took down his bird feeder for a while after the encounter and hasn’t seen another bear since that night. However, he’s been keeping up with other residents’ bear-related Front Porch Forum posts and noted one has been spotted more frequently around Buttolph Acres. 

Stefani said such reports have driven him to consider taking further measures to avoid future bear encounters.

Danyow Drive resident Barbara Drapelick told the Independent she noticed a bear near her home on Wednesday, July 3.

“I was sitting on our screened porch reading when I heard some rustling in the tree line behind our house,” Drapelick recalled. “I turned around to see what it was, only to see a bear come sauntering out of the trees. He proceeded to wander up into our yard and paused to sniff the fruit on our crabapple tree.” 

Drapelick said the bear was only 10-12 feet away but didn’t seem to notice her inside the screened porch.

“I stood up to see if I could get a picture of him and my chair made a creaking sound. The noise startled the bear, he jumped (!), and trotted off across our yard, crossed Danyow Drive, and proceeded across our neighbor’s yard on Rogers Road,” she said. 

Buttolph residents again spotted a bear passing through the neighborhood this past Sunday afternoon. Renee Ursitti said the bear hung out in her yard on Buttolph Drive for some time that day. 

She underscored residents’ responsibility to learn to live with black bears, “whose territories and climates are changing, reduced and destroyed due to human impact.” 

“This bear is obviously young and working out how to be a bear on his own. I saw no scary behavior,” she said. 

SHIFTING BEHAVIORS 

Comeau said there are three main factors involved in these bear-human encounters: the size of the human and bear populations, food availability and bear behavior. 

“These are long-lived, smart animals, and we have been slowly teaching them over the past decade or so that we have a lot of food in our backyard,” she said. “It’s easily available, lots of calories, and so these animals are slowly shifting their behavior to start keying in on residential, backyard areas as a reliable place to find food.” 

Comeau noted that residents might not be concerned the first time or two a bear wreaks havoc on their garbage or bird feeders.  

“It’s a bit of an inconvenience, it causes a mess, but most people are pretty dismissive of it the first few times it happens,” she said. “The problem is that for some bears, they start to become so keyed in on these human foods that it becomes a big part of their behavior, looking for these foods. It does escalate for some bears into situations that can cause real problems for people.” 

Comeau said the department is currently dealing with bears attempting to and succeeding in breaking into homes throughout the state. 

“This isn’t something that happens overnight. A bear doesn’t go from eating blueberries and blackberries and beech nuts to — boom — going into someone’s kitchen,” she said. “This is a slow, learned behavior and a pattern in their behavior that happens through lots of opportunities getting into garbage, getting into bird feeders, getting backyard chickens.” 

Another concern is that bears feeding in more residential areas are more frequently interacting with busy roads. 

“We are seeing big increases in the number of bears that are hit and killed by vehicles,” Comeau said. “This is another issue that’s putting some pressure on our bear population and also creates human safety issues.”

So, what can Addison County residents do to avoid attracting bears to their property? One key step is to take down bird feeders for the spring, summer and fall months. 

“Unfortunately, it’s just such a huge attraction for bears,” Comeau said. “We’re trying to offer information to folks about how you can garden or landscape to attract birds instead.” 

Comeau noted the National Audubon Society’s has a native plants database that details plants native to the area and what birds they help attract.

Residents can also take steps to secure their garbage. 

“So, keeping your garbage in a sturdy shed, a locked garage, a basement, investing in a bear-proof garbage can or retrofitting your garbage can to make it bear resistant, so that bears don’t have easy access to garbage,” Comeau said. 

The department encourages people to use ammonia-soaked rags or sponges where they store their garbage to eliminate odors that attract bears. Comeau also suggests using an electric fence to protect backyard bees or chickens and learning how to compost in a way that doesn’t attract bears and other wildlife. 

A comprehensive list of steps to avoid human-bear encounters and related resources can be found on the Living With Black Bears page on Fish & Wildlife’s website. 

Whitlock said residents he’s spoken with have been able to resolve bear conflicts by removing unsecured trash and other bear attractants and discouraging/hazing the bear away if it continues to visit.

“People are going to see black bears, especially now that the population is getting bigger and healthier, so there’s no reason to haze a bear off their property unless it’s really close to the house, if you have children or pets or something like that you’re concerned about,” he said. “You just want to make the bear know that you’re the alpha on the property.” 

He noted that hazing the bear often isn’t necessary, as the animal leaves once attractive food sources are removed from the area. 

Comeau said the best time to take action is before residents’ encounter a bear on their property. 

“Once a bear has figured out about food on your property, it’s going to be much harder to deter that bear from returning,” she said. “It’s much easier to keep bears away by never attracting them.”

As for those that have already seen bears on their property, it’s important to remain bear-aware, Comeau said. 

“They’re smart, they can live for multiple decades, and they remember every meal,” she said. “You might have an issue with a bear right now, and that bear for the next five, ten years may continually check out your backyard to see if that food source has come back. So, that can just mean that you have to always be extra diligent once you start having bear problems.” 

Whitlock echoed that sentiment and added that avoiding bear encounters is a team effort. 

“Most people are really good about it but it’s a community effort because if you have one or two houses that are sloppy and leave attractants out for bears then it’s going to become a problem for everyone,” he said.