Leaders in a northern Wisconsin village are grappling with how to address what some say is a growing problem of bears roaming along its main street and in people's backyards.

Steve Hoffman, a wildlife biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said the agency has been working with the village of Grantsburg in Burnett County to address nuisance bears for the past several years. He said they've educated people to keep food, bird feeders and trash away from bears, and have tagged and relocated nuisance bears.

But the bears keep coming back. As a result, the DNR has presented the village with several options for controlling problem bears, including further trapping and hunting. Hoffman said the goal isn't to eliminate the bears entirely, but "to reduce the numbers in the area here and try to reduce that contact between people and bears."

Nine bears were trapped in the village last year, and trapping for this year is underway. But Hoffman said some animals are "trap-shy."

"Ones who have been tagged will sniff them and go on their way," he said. "They've been in there before, and they're not going to go in again ... which makes that a difficult thing to get those animals out of here."

A second option would be to recruit hunters within and surrounding the village limits during the regular bear season, which begins Sept. 9. Hoffman said in that case, the village would have to allow the use of firearms on village property.

The third option is to issue nuisance shooting permits to target problem bears, lure them into an area and euthanize them.

Weighing options

Grantsburg Village Trustee Diane Barton said the village will look at all available options at a board meeting Monday.

"We're at the point where our only option now is to do something to reduce their numbers," she said, noting that residents have raised concerns over sightings near schools.

Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife Executive Director Melissa Smith said her group would like to see the village focus on prevention rather than bend to political pressure from residents. She said an alternative option could be "passing an ordinance that you need to have bear-safe trash cans or keep your garbage in a place where bears can't access (it) at night."

Smith said she's not entirely opposed to using lethal methods, as long as people are using best practices.

Barton said the village has distributed letters in residents' water bills and posted notices in the local paper with limited success in solving the bear problem.

Another village trustee, Rod Kleiss, questioned killing bears that come within or near village limits.

"To just go out and indiscriminately kill bears just to reduce wildlife - this is their home as much as it is ours," he said.

Kleiss also questioned whether bears are actually a growing problem or are just being observed more often by residents.

"What are methods to determine the true severity or reality of the situation?" he said, requesting better documentation.

The DNR's Hoffman said it's been difficult to differentiate between nuisance bears and sightings.

"In a lot of the cases, the complaints were, 'I saw a bear in my backyard,'" he said. "That's not really a complaint. The bear is there doing what he's normally he doing. He just happens to be within the city limits."

Targeting bears

DNR large carnivore specialist Dave MacFarland said Grantsburg is within the a portion of the state where the agency is trying to reduce the bear population through hunt or harvest.

"Relatively high nuisance and bear conflict activity - that's the primary justification for population reduction in that zone," MacFarland said.

The zone encompasses several counties, including Douglas, Ashland, Sawyer, Washburn and Burnett. Last year the DNR set a goal to harvest 1,600 bears; the harvest total was 1,444. MacFarland said the agency wants to maintain the statewide bear population, which has grown to around 28,000.

The state received 832 bear complaints last year, 543 of which were resolved by educating people about steps they can take to avoid conflicts.

"The primary tool that we use is to try to work with people to better understand bears and bear behavior and try to resolve those conflicts on their own," he said.

Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife's Smith said the use of dogs and baiting within bear hunts should be examined as to whether they're playing a role with cases of nuisance bears.

She also said targeting problem bears is a more humane option than an indiscriminate hunt.

"It can't just be, 'Let's get rid of these bears.' It's got to be, 'Let's get rid of the problem that caused these bears to come to town in the first place,'" she said.

Wisconsin Public Radio can be heard locally on 91.3 KUWS-FM and online at wpr.org.