"At this point, we don't have any great options on how to deal with the bear. Sometimes those bears have to be destroyed because homeowners have conditioned the animals to handouts.

"We generally are not relocating animals in wilderness areas anymore because those areas now have plenty of bears. And relocating a bear to some rural area is not good because that's just pawning a problem animal off on someone else and then that other landowner has a problem bear."

Steffen said that in some parts of the Old Dominion, the VDGIF wants to stabilize the population and in others increase it. The biologist emphasized that often the question is not whether or not the land in question can carry additional bears but whether or not the human population can culturally stand for more bears to be present. Beekeepers, orchard growers and agricultural concerns, as well as suburbanites, can quickly reach their tolerance level well before bears have reached a biological overpopulation above what the habitat itself can support.

The VDGIF has determined that its objective is to stabilize the population in the following areas: Shenandoah Valley (specifically Botetourt County north), Northwestern Mountain, Dismal Swamp area, Northern Piedmont, Southwest Piedmont and the Alleghany/Blue Ridge corridor.

Areas where the population can increase include the Southwest and Southside (such as the counties of Mecklenburg, Lunenburg and Brunswick). During the past four years, VDGIF personnel have documented bears appearing in 85 of the state's 98 cities and counties.

Steffen adds that the above information reflects a growing population, based on data from harvests and other indices. He said that Rockingham is a good example of a county that has a bear population that is heavily hunted and yet maintains a solid contingent of two to three bears per square mile. There is definitely no need for the population there to grow.

For this fall, the bear archery season began on Oct. 11 and the muzzleloader on Nov. 11. Firearms opening dates and season lengths vary depending on county. See the hunting digest for more information or the department's Web site at www.dgif. virginia.gov.