Another good friend, Frank Carbone, turned me on to this article regarding New York State banning artificial Black Bear feeding........................Both intentional feeding as well as incidental feeding((putting out bird feeders and leaving out garbage) is now prohibited..................When we habituate wild animals to our foodstuffs and garbage dumps..................bad encounters ensue with people.................9 out of 10 times, death to the animal results..................I support this no feeding law recognizing that for it to truly be successful, huge amounts of educating the Public is required...................and that never does seem to come to pass...............Sucks for our bears and coyotes which are so bright and inquisitve.............they take the chances with our food "handouts"............they end up being shot, trapped and poisoned for their efforts

 STATEWIDE BAN ON FEEDING BLACK BEARS NOW IN EFFECT IN NEW YORK STATE

Will this plan work in the long run?
Or will bears get into trouble anyway by finding another food source?
Can homo sapiens stop feeding wildlife?

 

It seems the wildlife feed business is thriving and it isn't going away.
Last year in NYS many hunters were caught feeding/baiting deer and bear.

Responding to the growing number of conflicts between bears and people across New York State, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today announced a new state regulation that prohibits the feeding of black bears.
As black bear numbers have increased significantly in recent years and bears have become more widespread throughout New York, the number of interactions between bears and people has grown, often resulting from the intentional or incidental feeding of bears. Previously, DEC prohibited the intentional feeding of bears in proximity to certain locations. In an effort to reduce bear habituation to human-supplied foods and future human-bear conflicts, DEC's new regulation prohibits both incidental and intentional feeding of bears statewide.
Specifically, the regulation bans intentional feeding of black bears, and, after previous written notice from DEC, also prohibits incidental or indirect feeding of black bears through food attractants such as garbage, refuse or bird seed. The regulation grants DEC the authority to require removal of these and other food attractants when bears become problematic. DEC generally encourages discontinuing bird feeding activity in the Spring when bears emerge from their dens and natural foods for bears are not abundant and natural food for birds are becoming more available.
The Notice of Adoption of the new regulation prohibiting black bear feeding is available at http://www.dos.state.ny.us/info/register/2011/jan12/pdfs/rules.pdf%3Chttp://www.dos.state.ny.us/info/register/2011/jan12/pdfs/rules.pdf> .
More information about black bears can be found on the DEC website at http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/6960.html%3Chttp://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/6960.html>  or by viewing DEC's video "Living with New York Black Bears" which is available in public and school libraries throughout the state.