SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – A poster urging people to feed bears was plastered with purple duct tape along the main stretch along Highway 50 from Lodi to Wildwood. The author’s rationale has raised eyebrows along with red flags for wildlife conservancy groups and the community at large. 

“There’s something every citizen of Lake Tahoe needs to know about our Black Bear population. They are suffering considerably. A Black Bear requires a certain amount of calories,” the poster signed “With love and respect, Steven” began.

The letter suggests the bear population is sick and starving due to “eating nasty rotten disgusting things that human beings throw away in the garbage,” but then suggests feeding them to be the answer.

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“Keep our bears wild”, a slogan coined by Yosemite National park has been re-adapted by the Tahoe basin and other communities all over the United States.

The National Department’s website states “Let bears find food in the wild and give them space.”

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“It could be a joke, kind of along the lines of birds aren’t real. Joke or not, there are people who might take that joke to heart and start putting buckets of food out for bears and that’s no good for anyone. If it was a joke it was definitely done in poor taste. If it’s not, we need to correct the misinformation,” Heather Reich, owner of Bear-ier Solutions, told the Tribune. 

“I spent two hours taking them down after being notified” Toogee Sielsch, a resident of South Lake Tahoe and bear enthusiast, who has been using Bear-ier Solutions to fight the urbanization of bears in South Lake Tahoe. 

“When Toogee shared the flyer with me I immediately reached out to the bear interagency to get the word out,” Reich said that there were many misconceptions in the letter. 

Reich hung up her hat after working for 20 years with agencies on this very topic, mitigating bear vs people conflicts. Her attention has turned to helping residents and bears with Bear-ier Solutions, an electrified mat that produces a bee-sting of a shock, enough to deter not to kill.

The author of the seemingly satirical poster argued the “horrendous ‘Don’t feed the Bears’ campaign was dreamed up by people too lazy to sweep up garbage supposedly created by an animal… When a beautiful Black Bear breaks into your house looking for food it is directly the fault of everyone locking up their garbage. Leaving the Bear with absolutely no choice but to starve to death, or attempt a home invasion.”

The open letter bounces to touch on topics such as Hank the Tank, her cubs, then ventures to the topic of vaccines, and circles back to land on a suggested solution to the problem.

“[The] answer to this equation…is to actually feed the Bears,” Steven asserts the food should be set out in buckets in front of garbage cans so “our friends the animals can have a nutritious meal without injuring themselves, and minimal cleanup.”

“The fact that this person instructs people on how to feed the bears is really dangerous because as cliche as it sounds a fed bear is a dead bear. It creates a bear that associates people with food,” Reich explained that action is what led to a Colorado woman who was actively feeding the bears being killed by the very bears she fed, in 2009. 

“Bears don’t need to be fed; there’s already enough food, natural and unnatural,” Reich continued.

Toogee explained, “Urban bears are different – they don’t want to go for the natural stuff so to solve that problem we need to not provide attractants to any wild animals,”

“What they are saying is completely out to lunch,” Sielsch explained, what he considers outlandish, statements could be influenced by diversionary feeding, “Some people think we should put food out in the forest to keep them out of town – it’s still giving them human food and it’s also going to end up feeding unintended species. Bears that aren’t urban bears will be conditioned and increase the urbanized bear problem.” 

The U.S. Forest Service – Lake Tahoe Land Basin Management Unit posted the following statement to Facebook Thursday afternoon: 

“The Tahoe Interagency Bear Team has been made aware of flyers being posted in the Lake Tahoe Basin that are encouraging people to feed bears and allow them access to garbage, stating ‘they need it to survive.’ This is blatantly false and extremely harmful misinformation that is detrimental for Tahoe bears.

Bears are perfectly capable of surviving on their own, and are far better off without any human hand outs. By intentionally feeding bears, people are conditioning those bears to associate humans and homes with food sources. These bears, baited by unsecured food and garbage, are being conditioned to cross the boundary of safe behavior by approaching people, houses, cars, etc. to seek out that food reward. This changes bears natural behaviors and greatly increases the potential for conflict situations.”

The Tahoe Interagency Bear Team has a website informing visitors and residents on bear biology and how to coexist in bear county.

“It’s not possible for communities in bear country to coexist with bears unless people respect boundaries with bears and all wildlife. This includes not feeding wildlife, keeping garbage and other attractants, scented items, properly secured and away from bears and wildlife, and educating yourself on best practices when living in bear country,” the post continued.