Fines levied for visitors feeding bear on Blue Ridge Parkway? When will road reopen?
ASHEVILLE — After a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway was closed Oct. 30 due to reports of park visitors feeding and attempting to hold a bear, no one has been fined or cited for what bear behavioral experts are calling a dangerous activity, both for bears and humans.
Just in the last two weekends, the parkway has received “at least a dozen reports” from park visitors concerned about bear and human interactions, indicating that visitors were feeding a bear, spokesperson Leesa Brandon told the Citizen Times Oct. 31.
In response, park officials closed an eight-mile stretch of the scenic route Oct. 30 just north of Asheville, from Milepost 367.6 near the Craggy Gardens Picnic Area to Milepost 375.6 at Ox Creek Road, according to a National Park Service news release.
“Right now, we do not have any physical evidence of a visitor feeding or holding the bear,” Brandon said. “Our closure action was based on visitor accounts, as well as the bear’s behavior ― i.e., lack of fear around humans, which is often precipitated by human food rewards.”
Previous reporting: Blue Ridge Parkway closed near Asheville due to human-black bear interaction
No one has been fined or cited for feeding or approaching the bear, although both are illegal on the parkway. Specifically, it is prohibited to willfully approach within 50 yards of a bear under federal regulation.
Federal law also prohibits “the feeding, touching, teasing, frightening or intentional disturbing of wildlife nesting, breeding or other activities.”
The penalty for feeding or approaching within 50 yards of a bear on the parkway is a minimum of $100 fine to a maximum of six months imprisonment, plus fines and court fees, according to Brandon.
More: 'Aggressive' bear encounters force trail closure off Blue Ridge Parkway
The danger to humans and animals
Beyond being illegal, approaching or feeding a bear puts both the human and animal at risk for many reasons. Special Project Biologist Ashley Hobbs with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, said approaching bears is primarily dangerous because it can lead to a behavior called habituation, “where bears lose their fear of people, they become food conditioned, they associate us as a source of food.”
“Approaching a bear, holding out food for a bear, can put a bear in a situation where it feels like it needs to defend itself,” Hobbs said. “That can result in injury to humans, but it’s also dangerous for the bears as well.”
Hobbs said it doesn’t matter if the bear is big or small, if they get used to approaching people for food, it could accidently hurt someone, causing that bear to be labeled a safety risk.
People shouldn’t approach any bear at any time, Hobbs said, but feeding a younger bear puts the animal at further safety risk “because if it learns early on that people are a source of food, that sets it up early in life, and it's only going to snowball in that behavior over time.”
In Buncombe County, the No. 1 cause of death for bears is vehicle mortality, when a bear gets hit by a car, Hobbs said.
“When bears are hanging around more developed areas, or in this case are being fed on the road, that puts them at risk for vehicle collisions,” Hobbs said.
More: Answer Woman: Why do we see black bears in Asheville neighborhoods? Are bears threatened?
If a bear is spotted on a roadway, Hobbs said to slow down, let the bear cross the road and give it a good distance to where the bear feels it can cross the road safely.
“And it’s always good practice to go the speed limit and make sure you have your headlights on around dusk and dawn to make sure you can see a bear and have time to react if it is crossing the road,” Hobbs added.
Although federal regulation says not to approach within 50 yards, Hobbs said a good general rule is to stay 100 yards or “a football field” away from a bear.
More: Video: Black bear takes stroll outside City Hall in downtown Asheville, spooks tourists
When will the parkway reopen?
Over the coming days, Brandon said park staff will monitor the area for activity and will reopen the closed section of the parkway “once we feel confident that the bear has moved on.”
The Craggy Gardens Visitor Center at Milepost 364.5 will be closed until the road reopens, but visitors can still access the Craggy Gardens recreational area using N.C. 80 access from the north, according to the release.
At this time of year, the parkway is also subject to sudden weather-related closures since the 469-mile scenic roadway rises to elevations above 6,000 feet and snow and ice can form more quickly than at lower elevations (Asheville sits at about 2,200 feet for comparison), leading to dangerous road conditions.
The first snowfall of the season on the parkway fell Oct. 16 around Mount Mitchell ― accessed at Milepost 355 north of Asheville ― and closed the parkway for about a day.
"Snow and ice can come quicker at higher elevations, and parkway sections across Western North Carolina are in some of the highest elevation areas in the region. Once snow and ice show up at these elevations, they can hang around for a while - especially if temperatures stay below freezing for multiple days, and especially in parkway tunnels," Brandon previously told the Citizen Times.
Before heading out to the parkway, check the latest road closures at nps.gov/blri.
More: Mount Pisgah viewing platform off Blue Ridge Parkway to be closed during reconstruction
More: National Park Service: Woman 'slipped and fell' to her death on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Bear safety tips
Parkway officials urge visitors and neighbors to keep food out of sight and follow the safety tips from BearWise, a national educational program developed by bear biologists and employed by the N.C. Wildlife Commission. These include:
Never feed or approach a bear.
Secure food, garbage and recycling.
Remove bird feeders when bears are active.
Never leave pet food outdoors.
Clean and store grills.
Alert neighbors to bear activity.
For instructions on how to use bear spray and more guidelines on how to handle black bear encounters, visit bearwise.org. If anyone encounters a bear while on the parkway, call 828-298-2491 or stop at the nearest Visitor Center to report the encounter.
Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at rober@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Blue Ridge Parkway bear feeding will visitors face fines?
