Attack victim Chelminiak is ready for bears this season

LAKE WENATCHEE — After he was attacked and nearly killed by a black bear last fall, Bellevue City Councilman John Chelminiak made a few changes at his Lake Wenatchee cabin.

He and his wife, Lynn Semler, put away the bird feeder at their Leavenworth-area vacation home. They used to keep a garbage can under the porch when it was empty. Now it's always inside, empty or full.

As bears begin to emerge from their dens this spring, the Bellevue couple are making sure there's nothing at all to interest the nostrils of any that may pass by their cabin looking to fill their bellies after a long winter's nap.

"Once they get used to finding food in populated areas, they're going to go back to try to find it again, rather than relying on nature. So even if you never have an encounter, it's better for the bears to have them relying on nature," Chelminiak said in an interview last week at his Lake Wenatchee home.

Chelminiak lost his left eye and has not yet fully recovered from the Sept. 16 attack at the end of his driveway on Lakeshore Drive.

Within hours of the attack, state Department of Fish and Wildlife officials tracked and killed the 10-year-old female bear that had mauled him.

Any day now, other black bears around the state will emerge from their dens. After losing as much as half of their body weight, they will be hungry, said Rich Beausoleil, Wildlife's bear and cougar specialist.

They always come out of their dens anxious to load up on calories, and last fall they went into their dens with less food than they would in a good berry year, he said. "That's definitely a concern for us." Beausoleil said it's time for people who live in black-bear country to get serious, and start changing their habits, and their attitudes.

"It's real simple. It's the big three. It's garbage. It's bird food — including hummingbird feeders. And it's pet food," Beausoleil said. "If we can secure those three things, we wouldn't have the bear-human conflicts we're having."

Beausoleil said people have become far too complacent about black bears. Some think they're not dangerous.

"Three weeks after the attack, I'm in Leavenworth and there are people at the convalescent home sitting in lawn chairs looking at a bear chomping on birdseed. They said, 'Don't you hurt our bear.' "

He said he chased the bear off with his dog, and went back to tell the bear watchers that these are not cute and cuddly creatures. "You may go 364 days a year without a problem. But it's that one day the bear will be a little grumpy, or you get a little too close," he said.

And — except in rare cases — it's the bear who loses.

Mike Cenci, Wildlife's deputy chief of enforcement, said at least two dozen problem bears were euthanized in Washington last year. Eight of them were killed in North Central Washington, in the Methow Valley and Leavenworth areas.

Many of them were mother bears who left behind orphan cubs. The state ended up with 23 motherless cubs who spent the winter in rehabilitation facilities in Washington and Idaho.

Cenci said people need to realize, "A fed bear is a dead bear."

Beausoleil said even in a food-scarce year, there's plenty of food in the woods for bears. It may take them all day in the woods to fill up on insects, roots and berries. "It's just like us. You can cook up an elaborate dinner, or you can swing through the drive-through. We don't want to provide a drive-through for the bear," he said.

Chelminiak said he still sees some garbage cans sitting out in his Lake Wenatchee neighborhood. But some neighbors have changed their habits, he said.

Like his family, some of his neighbors told him they now carry pepper spray when they go for walks, and bring along their cellphones. It won't keep the bears away, but it adds to your feeling of security, he said.

He's also feeding his dogs earlier, so they're ready for their after-dinner walk before dark. He's just not comfortable yet, being out there after dusk. A noise in the bushes startles him.

One day, he said, he hopes to be able to enjoy the night sky at his Lake Wenatchee cabin as he once did.

His advice to anyone living in bear country: "It is serious, and it would be good to try to change some habits, and make sure you're not leaving an easy food source out for the bears," he said. "I was very lucky. But I would hate to have that happen to someone else."