Black Bear Makes Brief Visit

A wild male black bear appeared on Orcas Island over memorial day weekend giving locals quite the  surprise. It managed to elude authorities as it traversed from Blaine to Ferndale Washington and then on to the Lummi Reservation before swimming to Lummi and then Orcas Island.  Several locals sighted the bear and managed to capture photographs of it on multiple parts of the island helping record its movements. Washing Department of Fish and Wildlife Game Warden Dave Jones stated that “we have tried to catch this guy but he will not stay in one place for very long…in the 15 years of doing this, I have never had a bear swim to an island” explaining the difficulties of attempting to catch him. After multiple  traps were set in numerous locations the bear was finally caught on June 8th. Fortunately, the only casualties were a few trash cans and bird feeders as he was looking to stock up on high calorie foods. The bear was relocated to Eastern Skagit County near the Marblemount area on the morning of June 9th.