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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Don't Feed the Bears

At least not in New York.  A new regulation makes it illegal to intentionally or unintentionally feed bears. 

Unintentional feeding is when you have bird feeders, garbage cans or other food items out where bears can reach them.  In this case the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) can remove these things if they are causing any bear problems.  The state calls this incidental bear feeding.

Intentional feeding is pretty self explanatory and had been previously banned in NY when conducted around certain locations.  Now it applies everywhere.

Bear numbers have grown in New York and this is one way that human-bear conflicts might be reduced.