Search the Community

This is a story about a large brown-phase black bear that has been hanging around our cabin in Greer for the past week or so. About 8:15 this morning, our neighbor called to say that hunters' dogs have "cornered" the bear in the turn-around in front of his cabin. He wanted to know if any laws were being broken and if he should call the game department. I explained that it was bear season and the dogs probably had run the bear off the forest above us, and that as long as the hunters didn't shoot the bear within 1/4 mile of an occupied dwelling -- and if the guy they saw with a gun had a hunting license and a tag for bear -- everything was OK. Immediately after that, another neighbor called me with the same question, and added that he has the license number of the hunters' blue Dodge Ram 2500 truck parked near our gate at a forest service walking path's trailhead. Over the next half hour, the bear came to bay a couple more times on forest land about 100-150 yards or so from our cabin, and my wife and I caught glimpses of the dogs and bear moving between the trees. By then, all the cabin owners in our area were talking with one another by phone. I kept hoping that the hunters wouldn't shoot. At least ten years ago, a family watched while someone shot a small bear that had taken refuge under a vacant cabin thirty yards from their cabin. The wife called AZGFD, the forest service and the newspaper in Show Low and raised a ruckus. People here still talk about those "nasty, bloodthirsty, inconsiderate" hunters who shot Smokey the Bear. This morning's bear hunters did the right thing. They didn't shoot, although they could have, and the bear and hounds eventually headed higher on the hill and farther from the cabins. A while later, the three hunters returned to their truck and drove off. We heard no shots. I hope those guys eventually got to tag that bear. They certainly worked hard enough for it. More importantly, in all that excitement, they avoided what could have been another much-publicized incident that would put all of us in a bad light. Kudos to them. Bill Quimby