The clearcut logging mentality is wiping out berry bushes and rotting logs used as ant homes. The whole ecosystem that existed before is now gone and wrecked for many decades to come. Yes, there are more black bears in the forest but now there's nothing to eat for the bears like there used to be.
After a clearcut, the area needs berry bushes and fruit trees planted amongst the freshly planted pine and spruce trees. This is the main reason why the starving and desperate bears feed themselves any way they can.
About 15 years ago, when bear awareness was echoed repeatedly on the radio to bring your fruit down to a drop off address downtown, I loaded three garbage cans full of crab apples and went to drop them off at the address given on Second Avenue.
I found out that it was the St. Vincent's food kitchen. Two fellows came out to retrieve the crab apples but realizing that the apples were not for the bears, I told them that I'm taking them out of the city limits to where the bears will pick up the smell of the fermenting apples.
I dumped the three garbage cans full of crab apples in one big pile that measured about three feet tall.
I returned two days later to only see the wet spot where the apples had been. The bears had licked the ground so there was not even an apple peel left for the worms. The bears are starving because of our ignorance, and it has nothing to do with the bears ability to find food. We need to replace what is being destroyed by clearcut logging, so the bears have their food sources available.
Miles Thomas
Prince George
