Black bears wandering onto my work sites can add some extra excitement to the day. It happens occasionally when your strata (multi-family) sites are located in bear habitat. You accept the risk in exchange for working in beautiful surroundings. And black bears are beautiful animals.
Plums
At one site we have a plum tree just outside the complex boundaries and every year a black bear comes to enjoys its fruit. And I love the way he does it by climbing the tree and savagely breaking off entire branches. I find it interesting that the tree recovers every year from these insults. That’s the kind of resilience I want my kids to have.
Spring
This past week our work was interrupted before we even had a chance to get going. A skinny black bear was roaming the site, obviously hungry after ending his hibernation.
Now, normally machine noise scares black bears away but this bear was too weak to climb the fencing so he kept roaming the site just as residents started heading for work and school. This is what scares me: walking around some corner and walking right into the animal.
One lady confidently walked out of her unit and ignored our calls. She was probably thinking it was a bit early for three handsome landscapers to be approaching her. It took some time to convince her that perhaps she might want to take another walkway. She was a cute plus size woman but as professional landscapers we were only concerned for her safety.
Police
Later, when the bear walked from our work truck straight towards us the foreman called the police. So they came, again, but didn’t seem worried. It’s a normal thing in spring. The black bears wake up from hibernation and they search for food. Which explains why the complex’s garbage collection area looks like a military fort.
The native Salmonberries (Rubus spectabilis) are flowering but it will be a while before they’re ready for bears and landscapers to enjoy. I am actually not sure what the bears eat right after hibernation.
Staying safe
Machine noise normally scares the bears away but tasks such as weeding, especially when done with headphones in, can be sketchy. It’s best to work in groups and pay attention. If you do see a bear, just calmly back up but stick together so you look bigger.
The poor animals have to suffer human encroachment into their habitat and I sometimes feel bad for them. But when I see a bear it makes my day!
