A mother bear with two young cubs wandered into Sierra Madre’s dining district in the afternoon of Sept. 14, 2023. With bears waking up from hibernation and traipsing through San Gabriel Valley foothill community backyards, school yards and streets, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger on Tuesday, June 4 demanded better responses from state wildlife officials to deal with potentially dangerous bear-human encounters.
Large mammals are leaving the forest in search of food and water, according to the motion, resulting in bears entering homes and in a few cases attacking residents. an 83-year-old transient man sleeping outdoors near Chantry Flat, a rural camping and picnic area, was attacked by a bear that scratched his face and arm.
“In the last month, we have started again to get calls regarding bear sightings,” Kamchamnan said on Tuesday, June 4. “We have had calls of bears in backyards or just walking down the street.” Most of the time, the police cajole the bears back into the woods. When a bear won’t move — say it has climbed a tree — they will call CDFW. The state wildlife agency can tranquilize the bear and relocate it, he said. The motion approved by the supervisors criticized the responses from CDFW. The motion said the state is too slow in responding. Also, “there are only a few CDFW wildlife specialists who must cover hundreds of miles of territory.