Bears bedevil tree farmer
Animals' hunger gnaws at timber grower's
income
BY JOHN DODGE
THE OLYMPIAN
OAKVILLE -- The college education fund Ken Miller planted for
his grandchildren and great-children in 1989 is disappearing
before his very eyes.
The culprits are not underperforming stocks. The culprits are
black bears.
Miller's 30-acre tree farm, south of Capitol State Forest
near Oakville, has been heavily damaged by bears, which strip
the bark of young trees in the springtime to eat the sugary
sapwood, or cambium layer, underneath.
Since 2000, the south county tree farmer estimates, 60
percent of the 18,000 trees he and his family planted as a labor
of love have been killed or damaged by foraging bears.
The bears emerge from their winter dens in mid-March and
hammer the trees until berries start to ripen in late June.
"If I was a large landowner, I could average it out," Miller,
62, said of the damages. "But for a small landowner, it's
devastating."
70 trees a day
Georg Ziegltrum, a scientist with the Washington Forest
Protection Association, a timber industry group, said a black
bear can destroy up to 70 trees a day.
"If he doesn't stop the damage, he will lose it all,"
Ziegltrum said of Miller's plight, noting that trees 15 to 25
years old are most vulnerable to bear damage.
Adding insult to injury, the bears seem to key on the
healthiest of the trees, Miller said.
Ziegltrum said tree girdling by bears causes millions of
dollars of damage each year on public and private forestlands in
this state.
Forestland managers and wildlife biologists agree that the
problem has worsened since voters in 1996 approved Initiative
655, which prohibits bear baiting and most hound hunting of
bears.
"I probably voted for the initiative," Miller said. "I didn't
know about the consequences."
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates the
statewide black bear population at 25,000, according to an April
news release. Ziegltrum estimated the state black bear
population at between 35,000 and 45,000 bears.
But few argue that the population has grown since the
initiative went into effect.
Twenty-five years ago when bear hunting was virtually
unregulated, it wasn't uncommon to have 6,000 killed in a year,
Ziegltrum said.
The state Department of Natural Resources has a serious bear
damage problem in Capitol State Forest, said DNR wildlife
biologist Todd Welker. He estimated damage could run into the
millions of dollars on several young tree stands, some of which
might need to be completely replanted.
What landowners can do
Landowners do have options for controlling bear damage --more
so for private landowners than public ones.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife issues about 100
permits a year that allow private landowners who document
significant bear damage to hire hound hunters. The permits are
good for two weeks, and renewable, said Fish and Wildlife's Sean
Carrell.
There are not many hound hunters in Western Washington, and
the one Miller works with kills one or two bears on his tree
farm each year.
It hasn't been enough to stop the damage.
The initiative doesn't allow DNR to file for the hound
hunting permits, but at DNR's request, Fish and Wildlife
approved a special season this year for 100 hunters without
hounds, from April 15 to June 15 in Capitol State Forest and on
the Kapowsin Tree Farm in Pierce County, a Campbell Group
property hard hit by bear damage.
So far, about seven bears have been killed in the state
forest, Welker said.
"Based on previous experience, we would expect to see a
maximum of a dozen bears taken in each of the two areas," said
Fish and Wildlife game manager Dave Ware. "The human activity
associated with the hunt should also keep black bears away from
choice stands of trees."
Landowners also can set up springtime bear-feeding stations
to give bears a nutritional alternative to sapwood.
The feeding program has worked on some timberlands to reduce
bear damage and limit the number of bears killed, Ziegltrum
said.
"If it was my land, I would definitely put up a couple of
feeding stations," Ziegltrum said of Miller's tree farm. "It's
his best option."
Miller said he tried feeding the bears in 2001. It didn't
curtail the damage, but it cost him $1,000 to $2,000 a year.
"I don't know what the solution is," Miller said. "Maybe the
government should help small tree farmers with a feeding
program."
DNR has considered feeding stations for Capitol Forest but is
not sold on them, Welker said.
"The problem with feeding stations is once you start, you
can't stop," Welker added.
For now, Miller is simply a frustrated tree farmer, pained
every time he visits his tree farm this spring and sees more
damage.
"At this rate, my family tree farm will be suffering bear
damage long after I die," he said.
