Humans endangering themselves, bears
U.S. Forest Service officials are threatening to shut off access to Taylor Creek on the South Shore if people don’t start behaving better.
“We have had mobs of people rushing the bears trying to get a selfie. People are going off the trails to look for bears,” Lisa Herron, spokeswoman for the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, told Lake Tahoe News. “Our visitor center staff had a report of a bear charging someone. We have had people running across the highway because they heard there is a bear.”
Bears like to frequent the South Shore creek this time of year because the salmon are spawning — so it’s a great feeding place for them.
What people are forgetting is that these animals are wild — and that this is not some sort of controlled Disneyland spectacle.
Forest Service officials said human interaction with bears at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center during the Kokanee salmon spawn has reached an unsafe level. Visitors are getting too close to bears to take photos and videos. Not only can someone be hurt, but then the bear would likely have to be put down.
For more information on visiting bear country, go online.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Let bears be bears and leave the bears alone, PLEASE…..
Bears are best enjoyed from a distance. I am always thrilled by a bear sighting, but give them some respect. They are wild animals. Up close is too close.
Let the idiots get bit in the butt. You can’t shut it down from the rest of normal acting people. Bears will be bears and tourists are simply just not as smart.
I agree with Sick…let the bears take a chunk out of them.
For years I had to deal with bears getting into my neighbors trash. Garbage all over the street and drug into my yard and others around here as well.
The city finally got involved and forced them to buy bear proof garbage cans. It’s greatly reduced the bear activity on this street. So for the time being, I’m not picking up someone elses trash on my property.
Keepng my fingers crossed that the bears have moved on. OLS
hmm and sick, while I appreciate where your coming from a bear on a bad day would be bear 100 selfie taker 0. Then it would be bear 0, forest service 100. Our bears over all seem to be good natured folk, but do not push them.
@26intahoe-Yeah, I know. And I agree. Still…the poetic justice of a bear playing “Darwin Award Presenter” makes me chuckle.
Any of the USFS ever been to Yellerstone? This is an every day event. in this state maybe they should use an employee of USFS in a fake bear suit and have rangers waiting with their ticket book when the tourists try to approach for a hug and a picture. See how it works for PR. “Bear molesting” and preventing the bears from their dinner is not a federal charge yet I don’t think or maybe it is.
Justice I am not grasping what you are trying to say. There are Grizzly Bears in Yellowstone, which are just plain mean. If I would not get within 50 yards of one of our bears, I would not get within a 1/4 mile of a grizzly.
sad,but the idiotic behavior I saw there last Saturday had me shaking my head and saying “they are going to make this off limits during salmon spawning season”. Idiots hopping stones in creek to get closer and get good photos, or crossing the creek so then the bear had humans coming at him from both sides. Sigh. The few stupid ones ruin it for the rest.
It might be wise to have an educational sign at the Visitor Center to warn visitors NOT to try to get pictures with or approach bears, skip stones in Taylor Creek, or risk being cited. There is probably an ordinance in place that would cover this. It could be put by the signs that warn to keep kids and dogs out of Taylor Creek water because of bacteria. If there is a warning, other visitors would likely say something to anyone violating this, and/or take their picture for the Forest Service rangers. I think visitors are just naive (ok, stupid sometimes), so let’s educate & warn them. I love walking the Rainbow Trail during spawning season, and know I would be a local who would say something to anyone I saw doing something stupid. But, let’s put a warning sign by the other sign…., indicating that this is a sensitive wildlife area.
Hmmm and Sick. The problem with letting them get ‘bit in the butt’ is that would make the bear a danger to humans and would probably cause the bear to be euthanized. We do not want that. Just leave the bears alone.
In Jellystone there are signs everywhere warning people to stay away from wildlife and every year there are those who don’t as too many tourists leave their brains on a shelf at home. It is also why they go there. If you create the Disneyland the people will come and react the same way. In our parents time they used to feed bears from their cars and now in Jellystone people watch for traffic jams because they know there is wildlife. I have seen some poor little bears hounded by tour busses and people with cameras to the point they run for the hills to get away. People like to watch bears and a lot of people have no idea what a bear can do and think they are big dogs. It is best to expect people to want to see the bears and have a way to safely do it without closing public lands to the public.
It’s like everything else in Tahoe. Use the event as a way to bring more and more tourists in and then when it gets out of hand and the event is ruined by all the idiots, some government agency will try and regulate it.
How do you make the idiots wake up and behave ? Take lots of money out of their pockets, as in fines. No slap on the wrist “bad human, don’t do it again”, first incident- $200 and go up from there.
And of course the best route to take, is to stop trying to bring the world to Lake Tahoe. Too many people, locals included, are destroying Lake Tahoe. Don’t think so? Look at Yosemite and see what is going on there. Too many people negatively impacting the area and so they are doing what they can to reduce visitors. The only ones against the limits are vendors, looking to make a buck off all the tourists, just as in Tahoe. Money hungry business people are destroying Lake Tahoe.
“It might be wise to have an educational sign at the Visitor Center to warn visitors NOT to try to get pictures with or approach bears….I love walking the Rainbow Trail during spawning season, ”
well this person who wrote this apparently isnt out there in daylight so they can he or she can see the signs that do just that all around the area? As far as some of this being part of some “selfie” craze, at some point one has to realize that you can not totally protect people from all self-endangering behaviors. Sooner or later someone will probably get seriously hurt, but closing the area in reality rather than just on paper would require Forest Service staff in the area most of the day and if there was staff on site most of the day, my guess is that would actually reduce the stupid behavior as well.
Irish: Good idea but idiot tourists don’t read signs. They think they’re meant for everyone one else. One will get bit and that will be fine, but then the Feds in their infinite stupidity will put the bear down. My question is what would they do if a Sow protecting her cubs mauled some “selfie” tourist?
Also, we already have ordinances in place against feeding wild animals, or disturbing a habitat. Cite them all!!!
Yesturday was insane at Taylor Creek. People were really crowding the bears. Even people with small kids. At one point when the baby bear crossed the bridge, I had to tell people to give it some space so it could get back to its momma. Most of the people who have big cameras and big lenses keep a distance because we can zoom in. But i was almost knocked over by one of those people today. I think today was pretty close to being out of control with the amount of people there blocking in the bears. I love taking photos of the bears and seeing them in their natural habitat as much as the next guy. But its getting out of hand. The first time a child gets their arm bit off, the bear will be killed. Ive seen teachers guiding their students across the bank to the other side of the creek. Picking up the dead fish and showing them to the kids, parents letting their kids run wild through the trails 50 feet ahead of them. And when you say something to the people they get offended. I know many locals have tried to educate visitors. Im amazed the forest service has not been down there regulating the people more. Its such an honor to be able to witness these creatures, but I have a feeling this privilege will be taken away in the years to come. There have been a ton of very respectful people there taking pictures the majority of the times I have been down there. The huge groups during the day seem to be when the issues arise. Advertise and they will come. Tahoe needs to decide if they want to be a small mountain community, or a big city. Please respect the bears so everyone can enjoy them for years to come. Noone will get enjoy a dead bear.
Those idiots will get what’s coming to them. I have NO problem with them getting bitten, except for what Feds might do to the bear. Enforcement at Taylor creek is lacking and the Feds must have more important things to do. Being proactive has never been their strong suit. Not sure they even have a strong suit.
Shanen, Very well put in regards to the bears. My neighbors were inadvertently feeding the bears by leaving their trash out for easy accsess.
It appears we’ve had a small measure of succses by the offenders being told by Clean Tahoe, (544-4210) to buy bear proof cans. Since that occured I have’nt seen a bear on the street for 10 days.
Don’t feed the bears!!! OLS
Its not only tourists and visitors that dont read the signs or follow the rules. Last weekend found my husband, son and myself down at the lake in one of the areas where dogs on leashes are allowed (where taylor creek comes into lake tahoe). Usually we avoid this beach. My guess is the majority of people there were locals and most of them had dogs. Walking from our vehicle down the short trail we passed two areas with signage. Also there was a dog poop bag station.The signs were easy to read, specific as to what they were asking of the public and completely ignored. The beach was filthy, dog crap everywhere and just a yucky experience. Welcome to lake tahoe…
just because you live here dosent make you exempt from the rules…
I often take my dog here and keep her on leash when on the way out, once there there are too many dogs and not on leash so as to let her have fun with them and into the water I let her off leash, she comes to me when I call her.
I was told by my dog trainer, that the exspandable leashes are not safe esp in the water as they get tangled when dogs play, This is a rule that is not right to have the dogs on leash in the water one could drown trying to stand in water even up to ones knees when dogs are playing and trying to hold onto a leash it doesn’t even make sense.
I clean the beach of anything I find including glass, poo, etc as I do along trails that I walk.
This beach is not that bad, mostly glass and beer caps. I and others clean it all the time.