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The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department has begun to receive reports of bears coming out of their dens and is urging Vermonters to remove their birdfeeders and take additional steps now to prevent conflicts with bears over the spring and summer.
“Do not wait to take down your birdfeeders and bearproof your yard until a bear comes to visit,” said Jaclyn Comeau, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s Bear Biologist.
Bear incidents have been on the rise over the past several years. Officials believe this trend is a result of Vermont’s healthy black bear population learning to associate people and food over multiple generations. Even with a steady increase in the number bears harvested by hunters in recent years—including a record harvest in 2024—Vermont’s bear population has been stable over the past two decades and shows signs of growth over the past five years.
Shorter winters also mean that bears are emerging from their dens earlier in the spring. In recent years bear activity has begun in mid-March. This is roughly two weeks earlier than what is traditionally considered the start of “bear-aware season” in northern New England.
Photo by VTF&W/Everett Marshall.
“Preventing bears from having access to human-related foods is key to successful coexistence with these long-lived and intelligent animals,” said Comeau.
The department asks Vermonters to take the following proactive steps for coexisting with bears:
- Take down birdfeeders between mid-March and December.
- Store garbage in bear-resistant containers or structures, trash cans alone are not enough.
- Follow the steps on our web page for composting in bear country.
- Use electric fences to keep chickens and honeybees safe.
- Request a bear-resistant dumpster from your waste hauler.
- Feed your pets indoors.
- Never feed bears, it is illegal.
The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department also asks Vermonters to submit reports of bears engaging in potentially dangerous behavior like targeting birdfeeders and garbage, feeding on crops or livestock, or investigating campgrounds. Reports can be submitted on the department’s Living with Black Bears web page. The data help biologists keep track of bear incidents and provide early interventions to head off conflicts.
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Categories: Outdoors
“Bear incidents have been on the rise over the past several years.” “Even with a steady increase in the number of bears harvested by hunters in recent years—including a record harvest in 2024—Vermont’s bear population has been stable over the past two decades and shows signs of growth over the past five years.”
Maybe it’s time for a spring bear season !
Hey flatlanders, ” Don’t Feed The Bears ” so pull in your bird feeders, any trash or any any other form of edibles……….
Bears are scavengers and hungry and they are not your furry friend, maybe jsut move back to the city you came from.
CHenry, But how do you really feel ??? 🙂 (Love it !)
I’m going to go back in history a bit, but how would Ben Day have viewed this yearly plea by the F&W Dept. ? I’d be willing to bet he’d have blamed the bears in large part, rather than the humans, and we’d have spring bear season tags to stabilize the population, and what is wrong with that ? Like it or not, like trees, they are a renewable resource .
I was thinking the same thing, and the birdfeeders will come down soon. But I live on a riverbank, and the bears use it for a highway between Lake Willoughby and the salmon falls whether I take the feeders down or not. The last bear who surprised me in my backyard was bending down young trees to eat the tender leaves at the top; that’s generally what they eat. They will also strip my currant bush of leaves and berries. I’m worried about crime and soaring costs in Vermont, not bears; having come from a small city in Massachusetts, I actually like the idea of potential intruders being ambushed by….
URSA MAJOR
The night was black, the night was deep;
Too vast for one, too still for sleep,
And where the vault stood glittering,
The snow-white suns rolled in to keep
That sigil of the cruel spring
Emblazoned there: the vernal king,
Whose miniature, now waked from cave,
Trod down the sugar-snow to bring
His nightly noise, that tries the brave.
I heard him shuffle, growl, and rave,
And drew the quilt above my head,
And thought my bed was like the grave,
So safe was I, within his tread,
For panicked thief and cur had fled
As if I was already dead,
As if I was already dead.
Our family farm was quite flat but tilted at a 45-degree angle. Flatlands: https://www.poland.travel/en/malopolskie-voivodship-more-than-pastries-with-cream/
Agreed, Ellin. These lowbrow animal haters have nothing but hate as small states breed small minds. They hate animals, hate Americans who comprise the citizenry of the rest of the nation, hate women, etc.
Recently in Pownal, VT a fellow trapper was arrested after a “native” Vermonter (lol….their only claim to purported fame, but in reality merely a misnomer, as their actual claim sure isn’t advanced academic degrees) discovered a gruesome trail of wantonly killed animals of dozens of species left decaying for days from a trapper senselessly murdering creatures and leaving them to rot. Obviously a brethren of theirs and the brutality they proudly engage and revel in.
They fear all those they detest knowing full well that licensure for hunting is lower than ever and that the “sport” of killing innocent woodland creatures has long waned and that time marches on for all everywhere. Yep. Even in small states.
There’s a reason why they are themselves referred to as woodchucks. A good reason.
Rendered bear fat make the best pie crust and I find bear grease the best leather dressing.
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress [or its states] can be judged by how its animals are treated. And in VT., a loud but dwindling few woodchucks are wrestling to maintain some type of assumed perverse power. They cannot. Hunting is down. Trappers are nearly non-existent. Or under arrest. As in Pownal. Take your pick. And you’re up next. Accomplishing nothing but proving my point.