Backyard Bear Habitat Management

Backyard Bear Management Strategies

WildTroutNC

May 2024

INTRODUCTION

A Sea of Poplar

Often, I'm struck by the monoculture I see in the National Forests. It’s a sea of yellow poplar. The understory is a tangle of invasives like multiflora rose, oriental bittersweet, English ivy, or a thick slick of rhododendrons. Long gone are the chestnuts, clearcut were the hardwoods, and the hills were left alone. Maple-poplar forest and rhododendron thickets replaced the rich mast of the chestnut-beech-oak-hickory forests. 

It’s more important than ever that private lands are managed for conservation. If the federal government can’t, then private landowners need to. Asheville provides a unique opportunity for backyard conservation efforts focused on black bears. Asheville and the surrounding mountains have an established and growing black bear population. Bears are consistently using human food sources. Negative bear-human encounters are increasing. By providing a well-managed habitat within human habitation, we meet bears' needs, removing their need to raid trash, while a well-adopted bear-proof trash bin policy removes access to human-sourced foods. 

Here is a guide to providing quality bear habitat. Land managers can scale these recommendations to fit larger landscape corridors or use them in city parks or urban planning. Forests managed with these basic concepts provide superior black bear habitats to unmanaged forests, as is too often the case with public land tied up in public opinion squabbles. These strategies offer adequate foraging, denning, movement, and cover opportunities.

FORAGING

A variety of stable and abundant food supplies is critical. This condition is best created by providing a mosaic of habitat. Bears need high hard and soft mast yields, herbaceous foods, and insects. Let’s explore each in more detail.

Hard Mast: 

• Oak acorns

• Beechnuts

• Hickory nuts

• Walnuts

• Pecans

• Chestnuts

• Bear Corn (Conopholis americana).

Bears depend on these sources to build the necessary fat reserves to survive winter dormancy. The abundance and availability of hard mast affect population growth (mortality, natality, interbirth interval), bear numbers, fall feeding movements, and denning timing. The importance of hard mast cannot be understated. 

These sources are seasonally available, and abundant yields are sporadic. Red oaks mast every two years. Additionally, mast failure is possible, so other foods must be available throughout the year.

Soft Mast:

• Blueberries

• Serviceberry

• devil’s walking stick

• Sassafras

• black cherry

• Blackberries

• Pokeberry

• flowering dogwood

• Holly

• black gum

• Huckleberries

• Elderberry

• Paw-paw

• Hawthorn

• Persimmon

• Grape

• Greenbrier

• wild plum

• Mulberry

Herbaceous foods: 

• Grasses

• Forbs

• Sedges

• sprouts

Insects and Invertebrates: 

• Beetles

• Ants

• Termites

• Eggs

• Larvae

• Honey bees

MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Now that we’ve identified what resources to provide to meet black bear foraging needs, let’s discuss management practices for offering these vital resources.

Hard Mast:

We aim to select the best mast-producing trees while providing a mix of stand ages. Non-mast trees such as yellow poplar or maple should be felled, lopped, bucked, or girdled and topped. We should leave some snags and fallen trees in place as much as possible.

Aim for a mix of mast-producing species. Select the appropriate species for your land. However, most land should be managed particularly for oaks, with a preference for white oak but maintaining a mix of red oaks. 

Long timber rotations will favor acorn production. Trees at 75 to 100 years of age should be removed unless individuals are still strong mast producers. Once felled, allow oak regrowth in the subsequent opening. Manage undesired tree and/or understory woody growth with prescribed burns every 3-5 years while protecting any oak regeneration from damaging exposure to fire. Oaks exhibit fire adaptation, but each tree has exposure limits. Protect smaller regenerating oaks. 

A fully stocked mature stand for black bears may have 70 to 90 square feet of basal area per acre. Balance current mast production needs with the need for mixed-age stands by removing poorly located trees with low mast production for several mast cycles or are in some other way unhealthy. These should be felled, left to dry/decay/burn, or girdled and topped. 

Conopholis americana, bear corn, is crucial to the black bear's spring diet following their den emergence. It provides a rich food source before soft mast is available. Bear corn is a saprophyte associated with oaks. Managing high-quality oak forests will increase bear corn availability.  

Soft Mast:

Woody and herbaceous species thrive in canopy openings created by timber harvest, trails, or roads. The increased light reaching the forest floor stimulates these plants. Soft mast production will peak 3-5 years after a burn, timber harvest, or other clearing and subsequent sun exposure. Using prescribed burns to reset succession every 3-5 years is an effective strategy for managing soft mast sources. This burn timeline also reinforces healthy oaks. 

Fruiting may decrease the year following a burn but will increase in years 2 through 5 following a burn. Keep different areas on staggered burn cycles and in different stages of succession so high-quality soft mast is available each year. The juxtaposition of burned and unburned areas is recommended.

Ensure the canopy of areas managed for soft mast does not close. Fruit-producing vines such as greenbrier or grape are productive when managed for fruit production and cannot form heavy canopy cover. 

Monitor growth carefully in clearings, along trails and roads, and areas with open canopy. The increased light penetration will create prime conditions for many species to sprout. Selectively spray any invasive or undesired growth.

Herbaceous Foods

Bears forage in the understory, clearings, and edges for herbaceous plants. Thinning and burning of the forest will increase forbs, sedges, and grasses in oak-hickory stands. Dead herbaceous vegetation must be removed by burning since it impedes new herbaceous growth. The combination of timber harvest and burning increases light penetration to the forest floor, increasing soil temperatures and nitrogen availability and stimulating herbaceous growth and production. Annual burns with mowing or disking in 1-3 year cycles can effectively maintain openings in early successional stages, which is best for herbaceous plants. 

Invertebrates

Invertebrates are a rich protein source. Decaying trees and logs provide habitat for beetles, ants, and termites, as well as their larva and eggs. Bears consume honey and wild honey bees in dead hollow trees and cavities in living trees. Rich invertebrate habitat can be provided by leaving fallen trees, retaining some standing snags, and leaving slash unpiled. However, smaller branches and woody material piles can increase invertebrate habitats. When using prescribed fire, protect logs and standing snags.