A research paper by wildlife biologist, Georg Ziegltrum, titled, “Impacts of the black bear supplemental feeding program on the ecology in Western Washington” is in the final stages of editing. This paper summarizes cooperative research efforts with the United States Department of Agriculture/Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA/APHIS) in Washington over the last eight years and describes the impacts of the supplemental feeding program on: behavioral characteristics of bears; the nutritional status of bears; the reproductive success and population density of bears; the home range size of bears; and bear/human conflicts.
WFPA developed the black bear spring supplemental feeding program to protect conifers from girdling by bears. The supplemental feeding program in Western Washington is a viable and cost effective non-lethal damage control tool for the forest products industry.