“We’ve put a million acres back into bottomland hardwood forests since 1990,” continues Paul Davidson, about a public/private joint effort to turn nonproductive farmland in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas back into forest. And among the creatures that would like to say thanks, is the Louisiana Black Bear.
“A bear is a generalist and his normal home range might be 25,000 acres,” notes Davidson, about how these restored forests give the bears a corridor where they can roam. Davidson is executive director of the Black Bear Conservation Coalition. The BBCC was organized when the Black Bear was listed as endangered in 1992.
“When the early settlers came, one of the things they were looking to trap was bears. Bear fat, tens of thousands of bear skins and bear oil were shipped back to Europe,” says Davidson, explaining how that quickly and dramatically reduced the number of bears and created isolated populations that eventually developed into subspecies. The Louisiana Black Bear is one of sixteen subspecies of the American Black Bear.
But today, thanks to efforts like that of the coalition, the bear population is on the rise, which leads to a new set of challenges. As cute as they are, when bears and humans occupy the same space there are issues to be resolved. “Bears are like great big raccoons,” explains Davidson about one of those issues. “They get in people’s garbage.” And so among the many things his organization has accomplished is helping to buy six hundred bear-proof garbage cans for the citizens of Patterson, Louisiana.
Right behind that community’s state museum is a 10,000-acre tract of land with the densest bear population in the state. And notes Davidson, there’s also a golf course back there where bear sightings are a regular part of a Saturday morning round. “When the acorns are dropping off the live oaks at the edge of that course, the bears are out there foraging.”
To help keep the Louisiana Black Bear in a positive light the coalition has also created a festival, which as well as educating and entertaining folks also helps make the bear a source of economic development. Without the need to skin it and sell the fur.
