Warning: Bear Damage on Lazy Z

The bear that "hangs out" on Lazy Z has been busy.

On Monday night he opened a garage door of one of my neighbors, rooted through a trash bag, and opened a passenger door on a SUV parked in the garage.

Last night, it was my turn.  He managed to force open a tool lock box which had been mounted securely in the bed of a Dodge truck.  This is a very sturdy locked box.  But it was torn loose and pried open. I did not know there was food in the locked tool box.  The bear found granola bars, and managed to open and clean out 2 cans of food.

This is a picture of the pickup bed with the tool box and contents scattered about.

This is what is left after the bear ate the contents of 2 cans.

UPDATE:  Another neighbor reports the bear tried to get into the recyclables.
There is also a rumor that bears have been harassing campers on West Magnolia.  One camper was even sent to the ER.

7/7/17 update - more comments on bear proofing:
I don't think people fully understand the concept of not having food around for the bears.  the car counts.  the garage counts.  trash the night before counts.  dog food bowls count.  open windows below 10ft count.  Don't lock your cars.  they can open the door and check out the car.  we had a bear that would open our doors and crawl around the car for a summer.  we have had everything broken into over the past 20 years at some point.  we over think how to protect these bears now.  we have not had a run in with one in 6 years.  so the idea they will always come back is not correct either.  So by no means are we not guilty as well.  This email is not a lecture.  Just a reminder that it all counts. 

________________________________________
Hasan Kozan  M.S.O.M., L.Ac.
Aloha Wellness Associates
Magnolia Acupuncture
3400 Table Mesa Dr Ste 205
Boulder CO 80305
tel: 303.589.1447 

I am fairly certain that our big late May snow storm killed some of the bears' critical foods. Before the storm, Buffalo Berry bushes were blooming but they never got pollinated. The flowers were shriveled after the storm. So, there are NO buffalo berries for the bears. In my years of observing bears here, I have seen that they gorge on Buffalo Berries in July.

So, we have a bear population that is very very hungry. They don't want to be forced to forage at homes - it's scary for them. But they are too hungry not to be attracted to the scent of food, regardless of where it is.

We don't get bears at our place anymore. We have all food completely locked down - including locking all windows and doors on the 1st floor when we are gone or asleep. We do lock our car doors but we never leave anything edible or even smelly (e.g., sunscreen) in the cars. We have bear proof garbage cans. The bears don't come around anymore.

I love our bears - unabashedly. Out in our forest, we have one mother bear with a single cub. They play in water holes and the cub climbs high into trees at a hint of danger. We also have a huge male who hurt a hind leg and is healing - he's been one of our dominant male bears for almost a decade. Each bear is a precious part of our ecosystem. Please, please, do your part to keep bears from getting to food or garbage at your home. If they do break into something, please take it as a message that you need to lock things down even more strongly. Please don't blame the hungry bear.

Please don't condemn a bear to death by reporting them. They get no strikes before they are killed. There is no longer a relocation program. A bear will be killed if you lure the bear in with available food around your home.

Thank you for reading this. Please help our bears get through this very hungry phase. Other natural foods will ripen with time (within weeks, I think), and the bears will then go back into the forest.

Claire

Unregulatable Fireworks from the Sky

Shortly afternoon, on this fourth of July, there was a brilliant flash, followed almost immediately by very loud thunder.  I quickly found the old growth tree that had been hit.

This tree is a real lighting magnet.  The first picture shows the tree with a scar from a previous lightning strike

Lightning Magnet Tree showing dark scar from previous strike.

Although there was bark scattered to over 20 feet from the new lightning strike, there were no smoldering, or even warm spots.  The bark had completely blown off to a width of 4 to 5 inches.

Closeup of new strike streak. 

I'm in unwitting service to the Moose

We got over 2 feet of heavy snow on May 18.



This was exciting because I get to do some more x-c skiing in my own back yard. But that is the dream, and then there is the reality.

First, the snow started to melt quite quickly, and was to wet to slide well most of the time.

But what was even more frustrating is that the local moose seemed to think the tracks I laid down were just for him.  (Well, the deer had the same idea.)  This is a problem because the moose hooves would sink down to bare dirt.



Once the snow was thus exposed it would melt rapidly, rendering my track useless for further skiing. I went through 3 days of this, until today.  Now the snow has pretty much melted and my skiing days are over for the season.

But, hey, I helped the moose get around