In Manzanita, sightings of a bear called 'Hope'
Oct. 18—MANZANITA — In the video, the black bear pauses and stands like a saint on a Catholic holy card: one paw dipped into a bird bath, the other raised up into a bird feeder, as if invoking heaven and earth.
It was the second time Thomas Campbell had seen a bear in his backyard in the last week. He wasn't the only person to get a visit from the bear — dubbed by some "The Manzanita Bear" and nicknamed "Hope" by one woman. Residents have reported several sightings in the last two weeks.
One person photographed a bear perched on a tree branch on Second Street in the middle of the afternoon last week. A little while later, a bear lumbered into Laura Merrill's yard and settled down on her back patio a few feet away from a window.
"It was pretty exciting," Merrill said. "I've never been that close to a bear or any other big wild animal."
The thought passed through her mind that the bear might be able to break through the glass and into the vacation house if it wanted to. But it didn't seem interested in Merrill and her husband as they watched from behind the window.
The bear came on trash day after the cans had already been emptied and Merrill and her husband removed their backyard bird feeders before returning to their home in Portland to make the yard less interesting to the bear. Merrill still worries though. Not for herself, but for the bear. She hopes it doesn't get into trouble.
One bear has likely been the source of the various bear sightings in Manzanita this month, state wildlife officials say. It is probably a younger bear hunting up a few more calories before retreating to a den where it will spend much of the winter months. Oregon's black bears do not enter a true hibernation, but across most of their geographic range they do spend the autumn fattening up. They become more lethargic and remain relatively inactive through the winter.
Local police say Manzanita has never had a problem bear — a bear that repeatedly raided trash cans or became a threat to people and pets. This new bear seems to be no different. Wildlife officials are not concerned. If people secure their trash and keep pet food and other attractants indoors, the bear should move on.
Black bears, the only type of bear found in Oregon nowadays, are rarely aggressive.
"They are typically far more skittish than deer or elk ... unless they're getting fed," said Dave Nuzum, a state wildlife biologist based out of Tillamook.
Looking for food
Bears that find ready sources of food in neighborhoods or are being fed can become problematic. In extreme cases, wildlife officials may have to trap and euthanize a bear that has become too habituated to humans and poses a threat to people, property or domestic animals.
Black bears are not uncommon sights on Washington state's Long Beach Peninsula and Clatsop County timberland owners and forestry workers may encounter bears on the land, or, often, the damage caused by a bear when the large animal peels away a tree's outer bark to eat the sapwood layers underneath. The average North Coast resident has usually never seen a bear around cities like Astoria or Cannon Beach. That doesn't mean they're not there.
The Astoria Transfer Station off Williamsport Road once closed down for an afternoon after someone found a partially decomposed bear foot and mistook it for human remains.
In 2016, people reported seeing bears in Warrenton and Hammond. Police were able to confirm two of these sightings. The next year, a bear browsed through trash in a dumpster at the Hammond Marina.
Bear reports pop up every few years: on the Tillamook Head trail in Seaside; near a school bus stop in the Bayside Gardens area near Manzanita. In every instance, the bear appeared to be just as startled as the human.
In Manzanita, when people report bear sightings, they're often near Pine Ridge, a gated community that backs up against Nehalem Bay State Park, or in the park itself.
The state park is located on a narrow peninsula. On one side is the Pacific Ocean, on the other side, Nehalem Bay. In the middle are campgrounds and a forested area intersected by a few roads and trails.
When park staff are told a large animal like a bear or a cougar might be in the area, they set out trail cameras.
Though people have reported bears in the park almost every year since park manager Ben Cox arrived in 2016, rangers have never caught any of the reported animals on the trail cameras.
The only recent confirmed bear sighting inside the park occurred two years ago. A park ranger happened to see a sow and a cub cross the park's main road and head up a hill.
People see things moving around and they may think it's a bear or a cougar, Cox said. "And I have no doubt that it sometimes is," he said, "but also that it sometimes isn't."
Sometimes it's just a dog or a coyote — the park sees plenty of coyotes.
'This is t
heir world'
Rangers have never had a report of bear-raided trash cans or camps. They encourage campers to take certain precautions to avoid attracting wildlife. Still, the problem animal park staff usually have in mind is an opportunistic raccoon, not a bear.
For Campbell, the sight of a bear in his backyard was slightly alarming. He has dogs and was concerned about them running into the bear while they were outside. He doesn't feel like anything needs to be done about the bear, however.
Wildlife wanders down from nearby Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain every fall. Deer and elk roam through yards and sample the landscaping. There are plants Campbell knows he shouldn't try to grow. But this up-close-and-personal view of wildlife is one of the perks of living in a rural community, he said.
"This is their world," Cox agreed. "We're just guests here and we have to respect that and know that."
One woman who saw the bear nicknamed it "Hope."
As communities continue to face the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and with housing scarce and increasingly more expensive for people who work in towns like Manzanita, Donna Miller said: "And here is a wild bear, free to eat our berries and apples, giving us hope that things won't change too much!"
