The Dubuque City Council passed an ordinance Monday against feeding or harassing bears. During a discussion of the ordinance, the DNR’s Ross Ellingson said the idea is to take away the things that lure the bears into town.
“Every time that there is somebody putting food out or intentionally feeding the bear, it’s hard, the bear gets used to the food source, and it’s harder and harder to make the bear leave the city,” he said. Ellingson said bears are becoming more prevalent in Iowa due to the large populations of black bears in neighboring states.
Dubuque County Conservation executive director Brian Preston said there are a least four bears in the county and one bear that now lives year round near Dubuque. “You know, early on when this bear started coming to town, we had some residents that were intentionally feeding the bear, putting out food, peanut butter, lots of birdseed, corn, things that bears like to eat,” he said. “They’re like me, they’re very food motivated, so they remember those locations where they got a good meal and they’re likely to come back to them.” Preston said they are trying to emphasize that feeding the bears is not a good thing. “You know, the old saying is a fed bear is a dead bear. I think it’s really exciting that we have black bears coming back to Iowa. It’s been about 150 years since we’ve had black bears in Iowa. So it’s very exciting, but at the same time, we need to keep wildlife wild,” Preston said. “We don’t want them being imprinted on, you know, associating people with food. And so I think this is a great ordinance. ”
People who feed the bears could face a fine of up to 750 dollars. The ordinance could also require a resident to take down a bird feeder to deter bears. Residents are advised to stay away from bears and not follow them to try and get a picture or video. Harassing bears to get them to go away is not allowed under the ordinance, as the experts said that could lead to more unwanted interaction with the bears.