Black bear causes a stir downtown

The best news about that young bear hanging around town is that it seems to be keeping out of trouble. That said, it did cause a great deal of excitement last Wednesday afternoon when someone spotted it taking a nap in a tree about 40 feet above the playground in Sisters' Village Green Park.

"All it was trying to do was get some rest, but it was at the wrong place at the wrong time." ODFW wildlife biologist Steven George

said.

"He was smack right in the middle of the park, legs hanging over the tree, looking like he owned the place." Shelly Marsh, of Sisters, said, "With his brown fluffy coat, that peaceful look on his face and his pink tongue hanging out, he didn't look at all dangerous."

Melanie Petterson, of Sisters, looked up at what she called a "brown fuzzy thing watching all the commotion going on." To her, the bear appeared so nonchalant, she wondered if it was thinking, "What's all the problem - what am I missing?" Jacobie Petterson, Melanie's teenage daughter was laughing when she said, "Hey, he's cute, looks like he's waving to everyone."

Within moments, a crowd of about 100 people were gathered in and around the park. About that time, Deschutes County Sheriff Don Pray showed up along with a handful of city employees, and they began crowd-control. Traffic cones and pedestrian tape were put up around the area, but humans being humans, they pressed closer and the officials in charge began to worry.

George showed up on the scene with the ODFW's bear trap, and some semblance of order began to set in. George was prepared to dart the animal with a tranquilizer, but after looking things over he decided to forgo that

action.

"When I got there he was about 45 feet up a large pondo and asleep on a limb," George said. "I did not want to dart because he was already too high for a fall, and when you dart in a tree they always go higher. I didn't want a bear falling 75+ feet, even to a net - if we got lucky and put the net on the correct side of the tree."

So, George set the baited bear trap at the base of the tree in hopes that the now wide-awake bear would come down the tree when all the people were gone and decide, George hoped, "the goodies in the trap are worth the effort to crawl in."

The trap didn't work. The bear came down at about 4:30 p.m. and evaded the trap. That may actually be good news for the bear and those charged with dealing with him.

"Looks like he came down, took a look at the stuff we left in the trap and ignored it," George said in a telephone interview Thursday morning, "and that means he's not a 'garbage' bear."

He seems to be eating natural foods and not getting into domestic things.

"I haven't had one call from anyone about that bear getting into garbage cans, and that's good." George stated.

The mood of both bear and bear-watchers was pretty laid back most of the afternoon. For many casual observers, this was the first time they had been that close to a wild bear.

"It was almost like a circus," Tiana Van Landuyt, escrow officer at Sisters AmeriTitle, said. "I about choked when I heard one lady say, "Wow! How'd it get up there?'"

The only person who had a close encounter of the exciting kind was Justinna Gillan, a Sisters photographer, who decided to push the envelope.

"I really wanted to get some good images," she said, "and when he came down out of the tree, I thought this was my opportunity."

Her photo shows the bear when it came down and started to cross the road.

"As he started across the road," Gillan said, "he turned and looked at me, and then headed right for me."

Both bear and Justinna started to run. It was while she was picking up speed that Justinna recalled her uncle saying that a bear could run about 30 mph.

Things were getting dicey for Justinna when a Volkswagen van pulled up alongside her with the side door open, and someone shouted, "Jump in!"

Things went back to normal in the city park, with children running to play on the swings as the bear galloped off toward the

Les Schwab tire shop area, with a small cavalcade of cars following it. The last person to see the Sisters bear was a deputy sheriff who kept it going until it was well outside the city

limits.