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Bare facts about ‘the Bear Man’

Back in the 1980s when we lived in Atlanta and travelled home to visit my parents, my father would talk about “the bear man,” but that did not mean much to me until I got to know Mary Moore and Joe Rieffenberger after we moved back to Elkins in the late 1990s.  At that time Joe Rieffenberger was retired from the Division of Natural Resources (DNR), and he carved wooden bears for the ArtsBank Auction every year to raise money to support artists in the public schools.

The basic facts about what Joe Rieffenberger did for bears are amazing. West Virginia had an estimated population of 500 bears in 1979, and DNR biologists estimate that there are as many as 14,000 bears in WV now.  That means this state has 28 times as many bears as it did 37 years ago.

According to John McCoy’s Sunday Gazette-Mail column last week, Rieffenberger studied the life cycle of WV bears and realized that pregnant females were often killed before they could go into hibernation and give birth to their cubs.  Rieffenberger recommended that hunting season for bears should start in December instead of November allowing expectant mothers to be safely tucked away for their winter hibernation.  Then the bears that were out roaming the woods would not be as crucial to the next generation of bears.

The work of Joe Rieffenberger is a good example of the many ways that human beings can make a difference in the natural world.  If we make informed choices about what we do, we can change the world for other creatures and make conditions better for the people of the future.  Few people knew as much about the natural world as Joe Rieffenberger, and his knowledge went beyond the bear population.

I had the privilege of going on a Christmas Bird Count with Joe and Kathy Leo about ten years ago.  They were both remarkable in their ability to find and recognize birds on that very cold day in January.  There had been a rapid shift in the weather and birds that are not usually found in our winter environment were on the Tygart Valley River that day looking for warmth and food.  We saw loons, coots, and ruddy ducks on the river, and Joe said that they were blown in by the winds of a tropical storm that had paid out in the mountains during Christmas week.   We also saw the usual woodpeckers near birdfeeders and lonely hawks high in the trees along Georgetown Road.

The world needs more people who take time to notice what happens in nature and how human actions impact the environment.  Small changes can make a huge difference for better or worse.

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