This is an older article that I first read in the Olympian, but found it again here. http://nwhoundclub.com/news.htmBears bedevil tree farmer
Animals' hunger gnaws at timber grower's income
BY JOHN DODGE
THE OLYMPIAN
OAKVILLE -- The college education fund Ken Miller planted for his grandchildren and great-children in 1989 is disappearing before his very eyes.
The culprits are not underperforming stocks. The culprits are black bears.
Miller's 30-acre tree farm, south of Capitol State Forest near Oakville, has been heavily damaged by bears, which strip the bark of young trees in the springtime to eat the sugary sapwood, or cambium layer, underneath.
Since 2000, the south county tree farmer estimates, 60 percent of the 18,000 trees he and his family planted as a labor of love have been killed or damaged by foraging bears.
The bears emerge from their winter dens in mid-March and hammer the trees until berries start to ripen in late June.
"If I was a large landowner, I could average it out," Miller, 62, said of the damages. "But for a small landowner, it's devastating."
70 trees a day
Georg Ziegltrum, a scientist with the Washington Forest Protection Association, a timber industry group, said a black bear can destroy up to 70 trees a day.
"If he doesn't stop the damage, he will lose it all," Ziegltrum said of Miller's plight, noting that trees 15 to 25 years old are most vulnerable to bear damage.
Adding insult to injury, the bears seem to key on the healthiest of the trees, Miller said.
Ziegltrum said tree girdling by bears causes millions of dollars of damage each year on public and private forestlands in this state.
Forestland managers and wildlife biologists agree that the problem has worsened since voters in 1996 approved Initiative 655, which prohibits bear baiting and most hound hunting of bears.
"I probably voted for the initiative," Miller said. "I didn't know about the consequences."
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates the statewide black bear population at 25,000, according to an April news release. Ziegltrum estimated the state black bear population at between 35,000 and 45,000 bears.
But few argue that the population has grown since the initiative went into effect.
Twenty-five years ago when bear hunting was virtually unregulated, it wasn't uncommon to have 6,000 killed in a year, Ziegltrum said.
The state Department of Natural Resources has a serious bear damage problem in Capitol State Forest, said DNR wildlife biologist Todd Welker. He estimated damage could run into the millions of dollars on several young tree stands, some of which might need to be completely replanted.
What landowners can do
Landowners do have options for controlling bear damage --more so for private landowners than public ones.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife issues about 100 permits a year that allow private landowners who document significant bear damage to hire hound hunters. The permits are good for two weeks, and renewable, said Fish and Wildlife's Sean Carrell.
There are not many hound hunters in Western Washington, and the one Miller works with kills one or two bears on his tree farm each year.
It hasn't been enough to stop the damage.
The initiative doesn't allow DNR to file for the hound hunting permits, but at DNR's request, Fish and Wildlife approved a special season this year for 100 hunters without hounds, from April 15 to June 15 in Capitol State Forest and on the Kapowsin Tree Farm in Pierce County, a Campbell Group property hard hit by bear damage.
So far, about seven bears have been killed in the state forest, Welker said.
"Based on previous experience, we would expect to see a maximum of a dozen bears taken in each of the two areas," said Fish and Wildlife game manager Dave Ware. "The human activity associated with the hunt should also keep black bears away from choice stands of trees."
Landowners also can set up springtime bear-feeding stations to give bears a nutritional alternative to sapwood.
The feeding program has worked on some timberlands to reduce bear damage and limit the number of bears killed, Ziegltrum said.
"If it was my land, I would definitely put up a couple of feeding stations," Ziegltrum said of Miller's tree farm. "It's his best option."
Miller said he tried feeding the bears in 2001. It didn't curtail the damage, but it cost him $1,000 to $2,000 a year.
"I don't know what the solution is," Miller said. "Maybe the government should help small tree farmers with a feeding program."
DNR has considered feeding stations for Capitol Forest but is not sold on them, Welker said.
"The problem with feeding stations is once you start, you can't stop," Welker added.
For now, Miller is simply a frustrated tree farmer, pained every time he visits his tree farm this spring and sees more damage.
"At this rate, my family tree farm will be suffering bear damage long after I die," he said.
