I recently ended up going to the Coast for three days. I thought three days with no snow would be enough time to go pick up a dune buggy from my sister’s farm. I’d been there about 12 hours before the phone rang and, surprise, they wanted me to receive 12 pallets of peat moss for the nursery the next morning. Bill Truscott was kind enough to come over and unload it for me. I made it home the next day.
About a month ago, I was out in the nursery field about to dig some trees when I noticed an overnight visitor to the nursery had died. It was a young buck with a large slash wound across the shoulder. He had simply found a nice tree to shelter under, laid down and died. That is where I buried him, under the Russian olive tree. A surprising number of deer die at the farm. Most often I suspect they were hit by a vehicle, but not this time.
In any case, the next day I was riding my bicycle through the back of the farm to turn off some irrigation. I came with some surprise upon a large black bear! I seemed to have scared it more than it me. It climbed up the largest Douglas fir tree in the gardens and stayed there long enough for me to turn off the water and get a couple pictures.
Later the next week, I was cutting the lawn. Circumstantial evidence indicates the bear favours plums. As there are plums in the orchard next door, this is where it had been feeding for some time. I had already picked all my apples and pears from the nursery. I raked and cleaned up underneath the walnuts and removed any other items I thought the bear would be interested in. I burned all the leaves by where the bear seemed to be making his bed, down by the creek bottom. I spent another week cleaning leaves from the rear gardens with one eye over my shoulder, making as much noise as I could trying to discourage it from hanging around.
Until last week, all was well. I was having a lot less deer hanging around. That is, until the bear ventured up into the nursery area and ripped open the beehives, so far only the ones in the cherry orchard, which are located about 400 feet north of the creek, and for now not the ones in the apples, which are actually closer to the creek bottom about 400 feet to the east. If this weren’t such a dry year, I would have no tolerance for this. We will have to set up an electric fence to keep the bear out of the remaining hives.
In mentioning the bear to my neighbours to the south, they shared some information with me about a possible cougar that has been seen crossing the highway in front of the nursery. Along with frequent deer crossings come their predators too. If you drive along the highway at dusk or at dawn use a little extra caution this time of year.
Evan Davies owns Beltane Nursery at 2915 Highway 3 in Erickson.