Bears encroaching Front Royal neighborhoods

By Alex Bridges -- abridges@nvdaily.com

Don't feed the bears, warn wildlife experts.

But not all Front Royal residents heed the warning or even know their actions attract bears into town.

"It's endemic of a urban environment in close proximity to a nature reserve such as the Shenandoah National Park," Town Manager Steven M. Burke said Thursday.

State wildlife experts and the town recommends residents remove any food sources from areas easily accessed by bears such as porches and patios. Residents who receive trash pickup from the town can ask the public works department to retrofit the garbage cans, Burke said.

Residents make sporadic bear sightings, but according to Burke the animals appear focused on certain neighborhoods in town that lie close to more rural areas. Bear sightings have been reported in the area of Ressie Jeffries Elementary School and around apartments on East Criser Road.

Burke noted apartment management, working with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, retrofitted the garbage containers, which appears to have helped keep bears away.

The town also recently helped residents in the Happy Creek area by retrofitting their trash cans as well as educating them about keeping bears away by taking away food sources, Burke said.

"We have had incidents where people arrive home and bears were rummaging through their garbage cans," Burke said. "Some people have kept them in areas that were close to their homes so that has resulting in some interaction between bears and residents and at that point we do encourage our citizens to contact our police department and we'll try and assist them to scare the bear off of the property."

Trapping and removing the bears has little effect on the overall problem, according to Fred Frenzel, of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, who spoke to Town Council about the issue Monday.

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Bears encroaching Front Royal neighborhoods