'Aggressive' bears on Appalachian Trail lead to camping ban in North Carolina section
HOT SPRINGS, N.C. – After shaking off their winter slowdown, a number of Western North Carolina bears are perhaps a little cranky and acting more aggressively than usual.
The U.S. Forest Service has established a temporary overnight camping ban along the Appalachian Trail from Tanyard Gap in Hot Springs, about an hour north of Asheville, North Carolina, to Deep Gap in Franklin, a little over an hour east of Asheville, due to "recent aggressive bear behavior," according to a May 11 release from the USFS.
"While backpackers are still permitted to hike through the area, all campsites and shelters are off limits, to include the area surrounding Rich Mountain Fire Tower," the release said.
Jen Barnhart, a U.S. Forest Service district ranger on the Appalachian Ranger District of the Pisgah National Forest, said a mother bear and her cubs were stealing people's backpacks and bear canisters to access food.
"The backpacks are being stolen because they have food in them," Barnhart said. "Especially if the bear is around, and the hikers walk away from their backpack before they even got their food out to store it properly."
Barnhart said a number of hikers have submitted reports online through the Appalachian Trail Conservancy website, which then passes the reports on to the USFS.
When will overnight camping be allowed?
While there is no timetable for when overnight camping along this stretch will return, Barnhart said they can make predictions of bears' activity, and that experts will need to keep monitoring their behavior.
"At this point, they're waiting for berry season to come in, and the biologist from the state said it could be like a month until berries come on," Barnhart said.
For now, mother bears are teaching cubs to sniff for food to take from humans. Barnhart said there have been reports of bears brushing up against campers' tents at night and snatching backpacks.
"We'll be continuing to look at reports that we're getting from hikers until at some point it makes sense not to have the temporary ban," Barnhart said.
Tips for protecting your food and yourself from aggressive bears
For backpackers in need of shelter, there are more than 250 located at varying intervals — some that have food storage systems in place to protect food from bears and other animals. They are an average of about 8 miles apart, but can range from 5 miles to 15 miles apart, or even as much as 30 miles apart when there is a town with some sort of lodging in between, according to the USFS.
Ashley Hobbs, of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, offered a few tips to follow in the case of crossing paths with a black bear.
Stop, back up and go in the opposite direction.
“You never want to run. Bears are omnivores so they still have that predatory chase instinct, and you don’t want to change an otherwise benign situation to a chase situation,” she said. “Just back up slowly in the opposite direction, give that bear a lot of space. Usually, bears want to get away from us as much as we want to get away from them.”
Give the bear an escape route so it doesn’t feel cornered.
In the rare case that a black bear does pursue, the person should try to make their body look as big as possible and “let them know they mean business,” she said.
The next step would be to throw rocks or sticks at the bear so it will “turn tail and run away.”
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Johnny Casey is the Madison County community reporter for The News-Record & Sentinel.