California and Nevada Join Forces to Promote Being BearWise in Tahoe
Bears don’t know when they cross from one state to another or from federal lands to state lands to private lands. So the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and the Nevada Department of Wildlife banded together with other state and federal agencies to make sure that all the people living and playing in the Lake Tahoe community that straddles both states got the same consistent, science-based message about living responsibly with black bears.
To help them introduce BearWise to the area, the CDFW invited BearWise to write something for their popular blog, The Bear Naked Truth (March 2023)
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If bears could read, we wouldn’t need BearWise®. Bears excel at acting in what they perceive are their best interests: finding food, finding shelter, finding mates, raising their cubs, coexisting with each other. But they have no clue that avoiding people and people places would be in their long-term best interests.
But if bears could read, they would quickly learn that taking advantage of all those human-provided food sources carries risks that are far greater than any short-term reward. Bears are super-smart, resourceful and adaptable. They’d decide that no matter how tempting it was, staying far away from people was the wise thing to do.
