The Bear Necessities of an Association

How one community manager and his association are dealing with wildlife challenges in a community just north of Los Angeles.

Recently, a California association received national media attention – not for attacks from its difficult residents, board members fighting with each other, or any other controversy an HOA might experience. This attention came because of the neighborhood - specifically the surrounding wildlife.

The Background

Built within the Los Padres National Forest over 50 years ago, Pine Mountain Club POA is under increased attacks from black bears. The recent media attention began from a front-page article posted in the LA Times about the small community and its roughly 3,000 residents living under constant threat of bears breaking into homes and cars. This article began a storm of news outlets contacting residents and the general manager, Todd Greisen, CCAM, for interviews and ride-a-longs with patrol staff. NBC Nightly News, CBS Inside Edition, and even France TV spread the news of this rather unique challenge facing the association.

The Damage

Estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years, significant repair costs within the community resulted from damage caused by bear break-ins. Resident victims are understandably upset and frustrated at the growing problem of bears in search of food. The commercial village businesses have also been victims. Among them, the local pizza restaurant has been broken into eight times while closed in recent years. Apparently, bears really like pizza, too!

The association has also been a victim. Unmanned at night, its maintenance facility’s staff breakroom refrigerator has been a repeat target. Bears broke through doors, windows, and even a wall. The building is collocated with the community’s transfer site, where residents bring their trash and garbage, requiring the association to harden trash bins to protect that food source. Additional damage impacts the community golf course, where greens’ pins become toys, sometimes broken by playful bear cubs!

The Contributing Factors

The cause of the bear problem, and how to deal with it are this community’s controversies. In a recent town hall meeting on the subject, Greisen, his patrol staff manager, and representatives from California Fish & Wildlife were panelists. The goal was to educate residents on home protection methods and actions being taken to mitigate the growing bear problem. Both Fish & Wildlife and the POA came under attack from some residents expressing their frustration that not enough is being done to deal with the increasing problem.

Since July of 2023, there have been over 600 reported wildlife incidents, up from just over 300 in the prior fiscal year. Depending on who you ask, the growth can be attributed to multiple reasons. Long-time residents claim bears were rarely seen prior to the nearby Day Fire years ago, which pushed the bear population closer to the community.

With its increased population, the community has become an easy source of food, versus natural sources found in the neighboring forest. As a beautiful weekend getaway only 90 minutes north of LA, city-dwelling visitors staying in short-term rentals are often uneducated on how to live among the wildlife of Pine Mountain Club. Sometimes, their trash bags are left on the driveway as they might do in the city. Or worse, food and trash are left exposed inside the guest’s home. With their superior sense of smell, even through exteriors, bears can easily find food – and will. Owners of parked cars learn that just a single fallen French fry between the seats or crumbs in a child seat can be the cause of a break-in.

Fish & Wildlife reports that when there’s plenty of food, the bear population naturally grows, making it a generational problem.

Even unoccupied homes, perfectly cleaned of food sources, can be the location of a repeat break-in. For example, if the mama bear had a successful break-in at a location, she may teach it to her three little cubs. Now the home is a likely target. As yearlings or adults, those bears will break into that home again in the future. Euthanasia, and even relocation of troublemaker bears, are not options for the agency to deal with it. Relocation will only move the problem elsewhere, or the bear will simply find its way right back to Pine Mountain Club.

Another source of the problem is a few full-time residents who have taken it upon themselves to feed the bears, calling it their God-given duty, despite it being against state law and association rules. They and their neighbors have had multiple home break-ins as the area became known to the bears as a source of food. As described in the LA Times article, one of the bear feeders is among the only known bear attack on a human when he attempted to defend his food, the bear had assumed was for them. Only in rare cases are they after humans. Most of the time they only want our food.

The Search For Solutions

In addition to state law making feeding wildlife a criminal act, the POA has similar rules to take civil action through resident fines. Residents shooting weapons of any kind within its boundaries is also against association rules. Regardless of the enforcement method, the challenge is getting solid evidence to support Kern County’s district attorney to prosecute or the association to fine.

Greisen says a livable solution must be collaborative. “Observing bears almost daily during the warmer months, POA patrol officers haze bears with non-lethal weapons. Thankfully, our patrol vehicles have become recognizable by the bears as a threat – running away as soon as they spot our white patrol vehicles. “But,” he says, “we can’t always catch them ahead of the crime.” He points out that residents must protect their homes from bears following recommendations given in association town halls and on the POA’s website. Community residents must also help Fish & Wildlife mitigate the problem by reporting break-ins to the agency, allowing them to track and tag repeat offenders and take further action.