Prevention of problems always seems to work better than fixing them. Fixing problems usually consumes lots of time, money and energy. On the other hand, all prevention needs is a little bit of public education. Reading a brochure article on managing the black bear population in Great Smoky Mountains National Park reinforces to me how important prevention and education is.

For years, bears conditioned to humans and human-related food have been a chronic problem in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It has caused thousands of dollars in property damage and injured dozens of visitors. Food-conditioned bears themselves were also in great danger.

Park wildlife biologists have tried a variety of strategies to deal with bears who are conditioned to human foods. In the past, they tried to trap and relocate the bears so that these animals wouldn't show up in developed areas where garbage was found. But this strategy didn't work well. Many bears returned to their original locations, using their keen sense of smell and homing ability. Many traveling bears trying to go back home were hit by cars and killed by poachers (and even other bears).

The wildlife biologists changed their strategies recently. They decided to focus on "prevention" rather than "relocation". More attention is given to keeping picnic areas and camping grounds completely free of food scraps and garbage, especially at night. Public education has become a priority. In case bears frequent developed areas, biologists use "aversive conditioning" techniques such as rubber buckshot (basically telling bears that humans are not worth approaching).

These new strategies have been successful and the number of bears requiring relocation and euthanasia has decreased significantly, according to the information.