Two Utah campgrounds closed because of bear alerts

By Paul Foy, Associated Press
11:24 AM PDT, June 21, 2007

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A campground in the eastern Uinta Mountains remained closed for a third day Wednesday as trappers tried to capture a hungry bear that has been raiding camp leftovers and could be losing its fear of people.

Wildlife officers eager to bring in the bear were heating a steak on a torch.

"We're taking some drastic measures by warming up the meat and creating an aroma," said Phil Douglass, northern region outreach manager for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. "We're trying to get that animal out."

The agency set up barrel-shaped traps for one or more juvenile bears that have made regular visits over the last two weeks. They were nowhere to be seen Wednesday.

Separately, a bear alert closed another campground in central Utah. The Blackhawk campground on the Nebo Loop Scenic Drive, about 68 miles south of Salt Lake City, was closed Tuesday night after a bear was seen sniffing in trash bins for two nights.

Efforts to catch the bears were not related to the fatal mauling of an 11-year-old boy Sunday in the Wasatch Mountains, said David Ream, a recreation manager at the U.S. Forest Service, which shut down the two campgrounds after that highly publicized event.

The Utah wildlife agency is in charge of capturing the bear at the Ledgefork campground above the Smith and Morehouse Reservoir, about 45 miles east of Salt Lake City.

"The bear keeps coming back," Ream said. "We try to get people to put their food away. Not everyone does.... We've emptied the dumpsters. The traps are baited."

Officials believe the same bear tried to raid a cabin in the area about two weeks ago and got a forearm caught in a door held closed by a woman inside. She also watched the bear put a paw through a window screen.

Wildlife officers have made efforts to trap or capture the bear since June 15.

"We placed traps there Friday evening, but the campground got so crowded, our folks were concerned that someone would crawl inside one and get injured," Douglass said.

"So we pulled that operation down but watched the area closely. And we were ready to tranquilize the animal when we saw it," he said.

By Monday, "They made a decision not to tranquilize this animal. It turned out to be a good decision, because they found some people sneaking up on the other side from where they were going to shoot the bear, which would have presented a very dangerous situation," Douglass said.

Many bear sightings this spring involve yearlings cut loose by their mothers, said Kevin Bunnell, the division's mammals program coordinator.

"That's the best explanation that I have for why people are seeing so many bears," he said.

A large male black bear dragged Sam Ives from his family's tent late Sunday at the head of American Fork Canyon in Utah County.

The family put up the tent in an undeveloped area where dispersed camping is allowed. The site is about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

The boy's grandfather, Eldon Ives, criticized the Forest Service for failing to shut down the nearby Timpooneke campground or warn everybody of a bear attack at the same spot 18 hours earlier.