Small Business Lifestyle

Vermont Fish and Wild life says the recorded population of black bears in the state was around 6,300 to 7,600 in 2023. The dataset was released on Monday. However, those numbers are at a slight decrease compared to the roughly 7,000-8,500 estimate in 2022. The agency says the population was at a five-year high two years ago.However, Fish and Wildlifes Black Bear Project expert Jaclyn Comeau says human encounters with the animals do not exactly correspond with population. She says there have been at least 1,457 reports of human-bear incidents this year. It’s a kind of a complicated, nuanced relationship, and it’s very dynamic as well, Comeau said. So there’s a lot of factors at play. The number of bears definitely influences the number of reports we get every year, but the number of people in Vermont also influence that, wild food availability for bears and habitat quality also influence it. And then, of course, the amount of human foods attracting bears into close proximity with people also greatly influences that relationship.Some encounters have put Vermonters in tough situations. Owner of Kraus Property Management, Brennan Kraus, said he had a close encounter about four years ago. I was working on fixing my truck. I had a bunch of trash I just picked up. I bend over to my tool bag, and under the bottom of my truck, I can see there’s like a bear’s feet, and I instantly just got up and felt a pit in my stomach,” Kraus said.Krause says he immediately went into his truck to wait out the bear. The thing that makes it scarier is it’s so used to getting into people’s bird feeders and their garbage and stuff that it’s not even scared of people, Kraus said. Killington Ski Resort has also faced impacts from black bears and takes precautionary measures to keep them at bay. “Bears are a normal thing that we’ve had here at the mountain over the past couple of summers, and we have a lot of preventative measures to make sure our guests and staff are safe if they do see a bear on a mountain, Amy Laramie with Killington Ski Resort said. Signage, making literature for our guests, making sure that they’re aware of what to do if they encounter a bear.Jaclyn Comeau with Fish and Wildlife say keeping secure trash bins and even electric fences is the best way to ensure a home is protected from bears. Comeau adds that the data collection for the black bear population in Vermont was released the previous year.This year’s black bear population will not be known until 2025.