Harvestman, the DEC distiguishes between home and land? Your land and trees are income. How different is the stealing of fruit and breaking of limbs on trees different than stealing from a house and breaking down the door? Obviously the bear is very comfortable in your neighborhood. Winter might change its habits. So sorry for this mess.

I would think if he/she found a reliable source of food, it would come back. Hopefully it doesn't have friends! In that case its time for termination or sedation.

I'm not going to discuss killing the animal as the fines are astronomical- even possible jail time. The state prioritizes the bears over my property. Of course, it's also very expensive to sedate and move a bear and the stated budgets are pinched. My budget is not much the states problem.

A long long time ago.LOL I was hired to shoot bears in a large landowners blueberry fields, he had about 300 ac in just blueberries. I was 16 at the time, I was shooting a 1903 springfield with 1953 surplus bullets. I watched a field 4 days and stood up to leave just after sunset. And a bear was 150 yards into the field. I was paid by the kill so I wasn't sleeping on the job. I shot ( about 130 yards) and the bear just ran out of the field. I looked for blood or hair and found none but decided to follow the bear anyway. Picture a kid with a 60 year old gun trying to follow a trail of a wounded bear in near darkness in deep woods. I was watching and listening and heart beating at least 1000. I tripped and fell on a 350 lbs. dead bear. When prosessing the bear I saw the bullet had passed threw both lungs and the bottom of the heart and never hit a bone. WHEN i GOT HOME I threw my under ware away. I switched to hollow points, and bought a new flash light.You can still shoot bear over your farm land in maine.

Great story.

The only practical solution I can think of, given the constraints you are facing, would be to set up an outdoor kennel with 3 or 4 dogs. When they make a fuss, you can then run outside with a fresh can of bear spray, and give the bear a snootfull. They hate that. It would be pretty expensive to keep that many dogs, over time. I have a similar issue with rabbits that chew down our blueberry shrubs over the winter. We live in Madison, and while rabbits are not protected, it is illegal to discharge a gun within the city limits. I am currently using bloodmeal to keep the critters away from the shrubs, but I won't know 'till spring if this is effective.

Talk to your local warden about the damage. They will either give you materials to repel the bear or more likely permission to shoot to protect the crop. Farmers carry a lot of weight in Maine and NY. You may also find a young bear to be very fine eating. Best place for bears is in the deep woods and wardens know that and agree with that. If not call their supervisor!

In Maine a farmer can shoot first ask questions later. After you shoot you are to call IF&w and report it. THey will send a warden out to look at the situation. After 5 years a local warden told me just to put his name on the packaged meat and skip the call. He also called me at work one day and said " I have a moose in my truck, hit by a car, do you want it hanging in your shed tonight". He knew I had an electric hoist and would cut ,package and spread the meat to people who would use it. bbery where in maine?

Maine ain't NY and here the game warden is DEC and likely to be a cold blooded bureaucrat. I'm working on it though.

Alan, I don't know how many trees you are trying to protect on your own property, but if you can acquire enough human urine to scent the area it might help, especially if the providers thereof eat a lot of meat (which is said to produce ketones in the urine which the bear identifies as belonging to a serious predator).

But I don't know, I'm just saying ...

Good luck,

Mark

We've had a problem bear in our neighborhood for years. It has never bothered my orchard because of my dog. Just like any other criminal, the bear goes after the easiest marks first. Mountain lions avoid us for the same reason. Not the biggest dog, just a lot of attitude.

I once had a close encounter with a bear in Sequoia National Park. He walked around my sleeping bag and kicked my insect repellent into the river.

Rangers said their favorite foods were Fritos and beer. No way to lure him out to the woods, is there? This is the time of year when they're fattening up for winter. The dog idea sounds feasible to me.