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Bears move throughout West Virginia

A recent item in the News and Sentinel police reports caught my attention.

“A deputy responded to U.S. 50 (Robert Byrd Highway) in reference to a single-vehicle accident involving a bear.”

Vehicles hitting deer on Wood County roadways are common occurrences.

But a bear being struck by a vehicle seemed to me to be an unusual happening.

Wood County Sheriff Steve Stephens said he cannot remember another time recently, besides the Nov. 5 incident on U.S. 50, in which a motorist has hit a bear in Wood County. This incident occurred east of Mountwood Park around 5-5:30 a.m.

Last year, 119 black bears died from being struck by vehicles on West Virginia roads and highways, said the Division of Natural Resources in its most recent data. In District 6, covering the Mid-Ohio Valley, one black bear roadkill was recorded in both Ritchie and Gilmer counties in 2018, said the DNR.

Many of the accidents involving vehicles and bears occur on Interstate 79 through Braxton and Lewis counties and from U.S. 19 at Beckley to I-79, said Colin Carpenter, black bear project leader with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.

In their travels, bears follow the ridgeline, Carpenter said. A road or highway is not a barrier to a bear on its travels, he said.

A bear crossing a road at night is hard to see. Carpenter compared it to a “black flash” across the road.

Carpenter, based in Beckley, has been the state’s black bear project leader for 10 years and has worked for the DNR for 18 years.

In the Wood County incident on Nov. 5, the driver said she was westbound on U.S. 50 when a bear ran into the roadway, striking the vehicle.

The bear was deceased upon the deputy’s arrival, the sheriff’s department reported. The vehicle was towed from the scene.

The black bear population in West Virginia has grown from 500 or less in the 1960s and ’70s to a “conservative estimate” of 12,000-14,000 today, Carpenter said.

Most of the bears — the state animal — used to be concentrated in National Forest areas of the eastern mountains of the state. The bear population is now spread throughout West Virginia, Carpenter said.

“Black bears are generally docile animals that need to be respected,” Carpenter said.

Because bears are relative newcomers to western West Virginia, Carpenter said, he suggested area residents go to bearwise.org or wvdnr.gov to learn about black bears.

Jeff McCrady, who retired as a DNR District 6 wildlife biologist in Parkersburg this summer, said there were few bears in the Mid-Ohio Valley when he joined the DNR in 1977.

The number of bears in this region increased over the years, and McCrady recalls bears being hit by vehicles in District 6.

The number of black bears harvested during three hunting seasons in the DNR’s District 6 (which includes Wood County) has increased from eight in 2010 to 32 in 2018, Carpenter said.

Multiple bears are usually shot in Gilmer, Ritchie, Calhoun, Wirt and Roane counties, Carpenter noted. In Wood County, one bear was harvested during a bear hunting season in both 2017 and 2018.

Beginning Monday, hunters with a license can harvest bears in 51 of the state’s 55 counties. This also is the first day of the statewide two-week buck firearms season.

A bear must weigh at least 75 pounds or 50 pounds field dressed to be legally killed. This is to protect the cubs and sows with cubs, Carpenter said.

Black bears are adaptable, Carpenter said. They can tolerate humans.

In May 2013, a black bear was spotted roaming in Parkersburg, including near Jefferson Elementary Center, on Seventh Street, Latrobe Street and 14th Street. Law enforcement shot and killed the bear on Jackson Avenue.

West Virginia DNR usually receives the most nuisance complaints about bears in the spring, after their winter of hibernation, Carpenter said. They are hungry in the spring before the berries are ripe for the picking.

Bears will consume pet food, trash and birdseed when they cannot find nature’s food supply, Carpenter said.

“Our biggest challenge” is for black bears and humans to live in harmony, Carpenter said. The way to do this is to eliminate the food source for bears around humans, said Carpenter.

The DNR received 798 nuisance calls about bears last year. District 6 will receive 10 to 12 calls a year, while the Beckley office of the DNR receives about 500 calls, Carpenter said.

The DNR received 109 bear damage claims last year.

Contact Paul LaPann at plapann@newsandsentinel.com

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