We are BEAR League volunteers who were present last week on Butler Avenue, where the California Department of Fish and Wildlife had issued a “shoot to kill” order for a bear known as Hope. Unlike Charlton Bonham, the author of a recent letter to the editor and Director of CDFW, we saw with our own eyes what really happened. The sanitized, bureaucratic version published in Bonham’s recent opinion piece bears little resemblance to the reality we witnessed that day.

Bonham’s lawyerly choice of language reveals everything: “invasion,” “agitated, hostile crowd,” “interference.” These loaded words paint a picture of chaos and obstruction where none existed. We saw concerned neighbors who had watched Hope and Bounce, a family whose natural food sources continue to disappear while human attractants remain unsecured throughout our South Lake Tahoe neighborhoods.

Yes, Hope entered the home. But calling it an “invasion” is like calling a starving person’s search for food in a supermarket dumpster a “robbery.” Hope wasn’t maliciously plotting against human property—she was doing what any mother would do to feed her cub in an environment where garbage cans remain unsecured, fruit trees go unharvested, and open/unlocked doors and windows practically invite her into food-laden kitchens.

The “agitated, hostile crowd” Bonham describes? We were part of that group. The “interference” that supposedly “forced police to escort staff to safety”? That was residents asking why this predictable situation had been allowed to escalate for so long, why our previous calls for action have gone unanswered, and whether the cub would be separated from his mother. These weren’t threatening questions—they were the reasonable concerns of a community that has watched CDFW’s reactionary approach fail repeatedly. And the CDFW staff member remained on scene after police and fire left, calling into doubt her concerns for her safety.

We’ve lived in South Lake Tahoe for years, unlike Director Bonham, who has the luxury of spectating and speculating from his high-rise office building in Sacramento. We’ve seen the same cycle play out every week on our bear responses: bears adapt to human food sources because those sources remain available, CDFW responds with traps or “shoot to kill” orders when property damage occurs, and then the community is blamed for the “interference” of caring about the outcome.

Bonham mentions CDFW’s “Trap-Tag-Haze program” as if it’s some innovative solution. Bonham says that the program relocates bears, but residents know the reality: CDFW relocates bears less than five miles away from South Lake Tahoe, and the same tagged bears return again and again because the fundamental attractants remain unchanged. We’ve watched “hazed” bears come back within days, sometimes hours, because a few miles and a few paintball hits don’t outweigh hunger when garbage and pet food remain accessible.

What Bonham calls “public education” feels more like victim-blaming to those of us living with the consequences. Yes, residents need to secure attractants—but what about the vacation rentals whose out-of-state guests leave trash unsecured every weekend? What about the commercial properties whose dumpsters remain bear-accessible? What about enforcement of existing ordinances or crafting more stringent regulations? What about punishing those who bait and then shoot bears, claiming self-defense?

And directing callers to the Tahoe Interagency Bear Team is pointless. Days go by before a return call, and even longer for an in-person response. By contrast, BEAR League has a 24/7 telephone hotline at (530) 525-7297, with volunteers who when needed will respond on-scene within minutes. BEAR League’s staff coaches residents and visitors by phone, with the goal of getting facts out about Tahoe’s bears. BEAR League is invited to speak about living in harmony with bears at events all over the Tahoe region. What we don’t do is sit in skyscrapers and impotently pontificate about programs that just don’t work on the ground.

The most telling phrase in Bonham’s entire letter is the complaint about groups encouraging people to “witness” CDFW operations. Heaven forbid the public observe how their tax dollars are spent and their wildlife managed. Transparency isn’t harassment—it’s accountability. And one of our members recently was forced to file a lawsuit against CDFW because it refused to release public records relating to the shooting of a bear in South Lake Tahoe. CDFW still has not released those records. Bonham calls on the public to “respect CDFW’s work.” Respect is

earned, and CDFW must work harder to earn that respect. Killing its way out of this issue will never earn CDFW that respect.

We don’t want bears killed. But we also don’t want to watch bear families grow increasingly desperate while officials respond with bureaucratic language about “collaboration” and blame residents for caring about the outcomes.

The Butler Avenue incident wasn’t caused by an “agitated crowd”—it was caused by a system that waits for crisis instead of preventing it. Until CDFW acknowledges that reality instead of hiding behind propaganda about “interference,” we’ll continue to see the same tragic cycles play out in neighborhoods throughout the basin.

Real collaboration starts with honest language, true transparency and genuine community engagement, not sanitized press releases that paint concerned residents as obstacles to what is, in reality, CDFW’s ineffective wildlife management.