The Editor,
Re. "Bears busy & hungry" (The Tri-City News, May 8).
I was just thinking: 10 to 15 years from today, will there still be headlines about hungry bears?
I can see the mother bear and her three cubs walking along Hyde Creek, showing the cubs the old resting place of their ancestors taking a break from their daily routine. While she rests, the mother bear tells the cubs
"It used to be so quiet here, they could hear ladybugs flying by.
"Not today.
"Lawnmowers, power washers, cars, dirt bikes changed all that.
"It began a while ago. First one black strip along Hyde Creek, then it multiplied to two then four, eight, 16, 32 and now it's halfway up the mountain."
The cubs listen to the story of green pastures, big trees, bushes, berries, clean streams, lots of food - a place to live.
Not today.
The mother bear is telling the cubs about the "dead wood" that goes halfway up the mountain, nicely stacks in piles, side by side and in rows. Somebody put flowers in front of the dead wood, mourning the trees. It reminds her of the cemetery she and the cubs walk past every day.
Now, her three cubs are getting restless and hungry. The mother bear feels down and out, so she and her cubs do what some people who are down and out do: go looking for food in garbage cans - her only choice.
Not today.
Instead, she tells her cubs to close their eyes. She saw the conservation officer and just for a moment, the mother bear thought she could hear ladybugs flying by.
The mother and cubs are no longer hungry. They are in a new resting place.
H. Schaub, Pt. Coquitlam
