News

Bears, geese assert domain

By Jim Planck

HUNTER — The subject of nuisance bears, which typically surfaces every warm weather season on the Mountaintop, came up Monday evening at the Village of Hunter’s June board meeting.

Rusk Hollow Road resident Donald “J.D.” Kritzer told board members that bears have become a problem again up in that area, which is behind the village on the residential slopes of Hunter Mountain — the topographical feature, not the commercial entity.

Kritzer said that state Department of Environmental Conservation personnel have already had to remove one bear from that area, adding, “and they’ll probably need to come get another one.”

Kritzer indicated the remaining bear is vandalizing property to get at food, and that the problem is not the result of anyone leaving trash outside.

Division Street resident Richard Harty agreed, and cautioned the public not to take the bear problem overly lightly as a matter of annual repetition, or to assume that they don’t come down into the central village areas.

Harty said that only a few days earlier he had a 250-300 pound bear pass right through his back yard, and that one has also been a problem for a contractor up on Mountain Avenue.

Harty said the bear had broken into the contractor’s truck, even though it was closed up, to get at his lunch and eat it.

Officials have indicated that the more a bear gets used to humans, the less regard it has for them, and that it will soon lose its fear to raid garbage, break through screen doors into cottage kitchens, or, as in the case above, raid vehicles.

Board members also received a letter of concern from Jennifer Van Loan regarding geese on some of the area’s public waters, including the village’s Dolans Lake.

Mayor William Maley said that Van Loan was apparently at the village’s facility, as well as the Village of Tannersville’s Rip Van Winkle Lake, and a beaver pond on Route 214 in Stony Clove, and saw Canada geese on the waters.

Maley said that Van Loan expressed concern for the possibility or presence of goose droppings on the shore and any illness they may carry.

Both Dolans Lake and Rip Van Winkle Lake have public bathing beaches operated under permit from NYS Department of Health.

Maley said the village typically has to get a permit from DEC early in the spring to remove beavers that migrate in, and indicated that there was probably a procedure for relocating or driving off geese as well.

Village Trustee Michael Tancredi noted that golf courses in Florida typically have geese problems and that, although he was not sure of their specifics, it was his understanding that “alternative methods” that did no harm to the geese were employed.

Village attorney Larry Gardner added that C.D. Lane Park, in Maplecrest, which is a Town of Windham facility with a public bathing beach, often has to deal with a goose problem every year, and that he would inquire what the town does to solve it.

Village Highway Superintendent Charles Sweet, however, said he believes the two geese at Dolans Lake may already be gone, and that he will inform board members if that is incorrect or if they show up again.

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