Upper Peninsula Town Harassed by Bears
Andrew Norton
There must have been a bear jamboree in Ironwood up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula over the weekend. On Saturday, Ironwood Public Safety Department officers received eight different reports/complaints of bears. A large number of the complaints seem to be in reference to one of the bears in particular. He was tracked and after the IPSD contacted the Michigan DNR he was put down. The bear had been traveling through back yards and other areas where children are normally present and could not be scared out of town. For the safety of the kids and other residents the DNR recommended that the only action was to put the bear down. Another bear was later spotted in town and officers spooked it enough so it ran out of town with someone's bird feeder in its mouth.
All-in-all, Ironwood residents had quite the time with the convergence of numerous bears on their town. I am sure it would have been neat to see the bears (from a safe distance), but scary as a parent when you want to keep your kids safe.
Read the original article in the Ironwood Daily Globe
Michigan's DNR has a brief, yet informative guide to "Preventing Bear Problems in Michigan." The first main point the guide makes is to "never intentionally feed bears." It goes on to list various potential problems and the appropriate actions that you should take. I found it to be informative and to the point. Too bad that most of it is common sense since it seems that common sense can be in such short supply some times :).