New residents urged to take heed: ‘A fed bear is a dead bear’

By Marcy Axness, TME

The Pine Mountain Club Property Owners Association (PMCPOA) sent out an email blast to residents last week to enlist help to prevent another summer of bear mayhem, like last year’s.

They reminded residents of the large cinnamon-colored black bear that broke into several homes, caused tremendous damage over several weeks and finally had to be put down by California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).

New Residents, Do You Know?

A 2020 real estate boom in the Mountain Communities was an unexpected impact of the…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Left: This adolescent black bear is cute, but he also tried breaking into the Pine Mountain Village Fire Station 58. He was successfully chased off.
Below, left and right: He wriggled both the window screen and the window pane free without breaking them. New earthquake-code windows allow a bit of ‘rattle’ room, which may give the bear just enough of a grip.

Left: The ill-fated cinnamon bear smashed a glass slider door and left a Goldilocks mess strewn across the floor here and in several other homes in July 2020. A depredation permit was issued and that bear was killed.

This window had been left cracked open for air, which gave the huge cinnamon-colored bear an easy way in.

Most of us would consider this window bear-safe: over 8 feet off the ground, closed and covered by shades and blinds… but the railing! A bear climbed up on the railing and pushed the whole window off the track to gain entry to this home. It made a mess requiring several people more than two hours to clean up, including defecating.

The cinnamon bear was looking for a way in on Cedarwood Drive in Summer 2020. This was just days before it came to a tragic end.

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This is part of the April 2, 2021 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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