Editorial: Trouble is a bruin in Lake Tahoe

Saturday, Nov. 5, 2005 | 8:51 a.m.

A black bear that was shot and killed last month as it foraged outside the front door of a home on the California side of Lake Tahoe had broken into about 100 homes and caused an estimated $1 million in property damage over the past 18 months.

A caretaker shot the 500-pound bruin as it emerged from a house on the lake's northwest shore. It had eaten a package of lollipops.

Bears -- or rather, the human activity that attracts them -- have become a recurring issue on both the California and Nevada sides of the Lake Tahoe basin, says Carl Lackey, a Nevada wildlife biologist and bear expert.

The animals are attracted to garbage left uncovered or stored in trash cans that aren't bear-proof. In late summer and early fall, bears consume huge amounts of food in order to fatten up for hibernation.

But, Lackey says, many Tahoe-area bears don't hibernate. Unsecured garbage provides an accessible, year-round food supply, so bears roam throughout the winter. A bear with a taste for trash can cause thousands of dollars in damage as it rips garage doors off their hinges or even tears through the walls of houses to get to the garbage on the other side.

Although Southern Nevada doesn't have bears, unsecured garbage can attract wildlife into urban neighborhoods. Coyotes probably are most common. But in one month last year, mountain lions were spotted roaming in Henderson, Summerlin and around Kyle Canyon's elementary school. And last month wildlife officials relocated to Mesquite's Virgin Mountains two dozen bighorn sheep that often wandered into Boulder City's Hemenway Park.

Counties on Lake Tahoe's California side require use of bear-proof garbage containers. In Nevada, only Douglas County has such an ordinance.

Washoe County decided against adopting such rules. But Washoe officials are working with the Incline Village General Improvement District, which earlier this year strengthened its rules regarding bear-proof cans and started an education program that includes grants to help residents pay for the containers, which can cost $1,000.

As Nevada grows, the urban footprint at both ends of the state will march ever closer to open land and its wildlife. We all enjoy seeing an occasional bear or mountain lion, but not when it's munching yesterday's garbage on the front lawn. Nothing says "animal lover" like securely covering the trash.