STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTOS BY TOM CARTER

It’s been a busy few weeks full of picnic dinners and trips down the hall of photos at Sun Valley Lodge for Sun Valley-area residents as they host family and friends visiting here from elsewhere before summer ends.

Tom Carter got a visitor recently who was a little more hairy than the rest.

The visitor to his residence at The Bluff condos in Elkhorn was a male black bear. And, yes, Carter was a gracious host supplying his visitor with a buffet of birdseed—primarily sunflower seeds—on the afternoon of Aug. 12.

Black bears have been making the rounds of the Wood River Valley as they stock up on calories in preparation for hibernation.

A female black bear and her two cubs were recently seen in the Draper Preserve, for instance.

Idaho Fish and Game officers and Hailey Police temporarily restricted the use of trail paths leading to the Bow Bridge after a woman encountered a bear near the bridge on the nearby boardwalk. It ran up a tree allowing her to back off.

Others spotted a mother bear and cubs in a tree about the same time.

This year’s dry conditions make natural food sources more difficult to find, increasing the likelihood that bears will do their shopping in residential areas. And, when they find it, they can become food-conditioned making them more likely to return to neighborhoods.

As bears prepare for hibernation, they enter a period of intense feeding, consuming 20,000-plus calories a day to build fat reserves for winter.

Bears that become accustomed to finding food around homes also can become increasingly bold and may even defend their food source, creating safety concerns, according to Kenzie Baratti, Magic Valley’s Regional Communications Manager.

Homeowners are advised to pick up food that has fallen to the ground and secure their garbage bins to avoid tempting bears. Bird feeders can be safely put back out after the bears begin denning.