On Friday, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation made it illegal to feed a black bear, even accidentally. From a DEC press release:
As black bear numbers have increased significantly in recent years and bears have become more widespread throughout New York, the number of interactions between bears and people has grown, often resulting from the intentional or incidental feeding of bears.
Previously, DEC prohibited the intentional feeding of bears in proximity to certain locations. In an effort to reduce bear habituation to human-supplied foods and future human-bear conflicts, DEC's new regulation prohibits both incidental and intentional feeding of bears statewide.
The new regulation is very simple -- you can read it here. If you're wondering what "incidental" feeding of bears entails, here's the regulation's definition:
"Incidental or indirect feeding" means using, placing, giving, exposing, depositing, distributing or scattering any material for a different purpose but which attracts one or more black bears. This includes storage of garbage or refuse and use and storage of birdseed in a manner that is accessible to black bears.
By that rule, the folks at Hunter Mountain might have to change the way they store donut holes.
Photo from the DEC's website.
