News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Lorry Williams, a custodian at the Sisters Middle/High School, spotted him first.
"I was getting ready to take out some garbage on the west side of the school auditorium. His back was to me. I thought, `Gee, that dog is moving pretty slow.' Then he turned around. It was a bear!" Williams said.
The 250-pound black bear was just getting ready for what was probably his second trip in 24 hours into the school dumpster at about 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 10. Garbage had been scattered around when the staff arrived at the school earlier that morning.
Williams said there were children out front of the school waiting for rides home after track and baseball practice. She immediately called for the other school custodian and called 9-1-1. The Oregon State Police arrived at about 7 p.m.
"The kids had scared the bear. It went out across the track toward Tollgate," Williams said.
OSP called the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Corey Heath, Assistant District Wildlife Biologist with ODF&W, and Glen Ardt headed out to Sisters with a trap and equipment to sedate the bear. By now, the bear was about 50 feet up a big ponderosa pine.
Normally, a bear that had left the scene would be left alone to wander on, Heath said, but "we felt as close as it was to the school and the (Tollgate) subdivision, and being in garbage," it should be moved.
This is the time of year when bears are just out of hibernation and "real hungry, looking for food," Heath said.
The sedative dart found its mark, but rather than coming out of the tree, the bear "stood up on the limb, turned around and fell asleep," Heath said.
Still in the tree.
Heath had to borrow a ladder from the Camp Sherman RFPD to get up the trunk to where he could use limbs to climb the rest of the way to the hopefully fast-asleep bear. He rigged a harness and they lowered the bear to the ground.
When the bear was on the ground, the biologist put in ear tags, administered an antibiotic and an eye ointment, and took the bear back to the ODF&W, where it spent a restful Friday night.
The next day, Heath took the bear down south of Gilchrist and released it back out into the wild.
Heath said that bears normally eat vegetation early in the spring to get their digestive processes going, and carrion if they can find any left over from winter. This 225-pound male was in excellent condition and about three years old, he said.
While not that common in Sisters, bears do inhabit the east side of the Cascades, especially closer to Crane Prairie, Wickiup and the Metolius.
Heath said if local residents see bears near their home, "the best thing to do is not leave garbage outside where they can get it. The same with pet food." If residents move the thing attracting the bears, the bears will usually move on, he said.
Bears that are a persistent nuisance or that threaten humans or damage livestock will be destroyed.
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