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damage, Mr. Foster hesitated. “That’s pretty hard to do,” he said. It’s not just the loss of production for this year. Standing beside a young apple tree, its seven-foot high trunk broken halfway up, its branches sticking out parallel to the ground, he explained, “It’s hard to set damage. He has hurt this tree for the rest of its life.
“We can’t even get an orchard started, can’t set out young trees. It’s no use setting out peaches, but I didn’t think he’d fool with apples.” Sometimes, Mr. Fo.‘er added, he can’t even see the point of the bears tearing up the trees. “I just don’t see the sense when there’s not even any apples on the trees - it’s just meanness, I guess.”
The barbed wire fence surrounding the orchard “don’t bother them.” The small bears go under the lower strand, and the larger ones push down on the top strand and go over, he said, pointing to several places where the wires sagged noticeably, and tufts of bear hair were visible. If the wire snags, the bear’s thick fur and layers of fat and muscle protect it from serious iiyury.
The complaints about bear damage are not limited to Rappahannock County, Warden Bankston said. “They are up all over the state, although this is not a record year.” That record, he said, occurred seven or eight years ago, when 11 were taken from the Fosters’ orchards during a period running from August to August.
Apparently, Warden Blank theorized, there are plenty of bear around. During the recent hot weather they have been staying in the cooler, shady areas up in the mountains, but now that the weather has moderated they will start moving again, he said. The two trapped Sunday night are evidence of that.
Mr. Bankston added that the Game Commission reported a record bear kill last hunting season. And, the Park Service has revised their estimate of the bear population in Shenandoah National Park, doubling the previous figure to 600. “They need room,” he said. When the bears spread out as the population climbs, naturally they head down out of the park where their numbers are highest and into populated areas, running into people — and problems — almost immediately. Warden Blank said he feels the
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