LEE — JoAnn Sullivan, a grandmother who lives on Prospect Street, knows that Berkshire County is bear country. But as she watched helplessly from the window with her grandson last July as a black bear flipped over his motorized toy car, spinning the wheels as casually as a toddler playing with Hot Wheelz, she felt that things had gotten out of hand.
“We’ve lived here 36 years, and I don’t think we would see a bear once every two or three years when we first started living here,” she said. Now, she said, she glimpses the animals almost daily during the warmer months.
In a recent interview on her back porch alongside her husband, Shawn Sullivan, the couple recalled a spate of other recent bear incidents. A bear slipping a paw under the wire of their chicken coop to swat at the birds inside. Trash can lids ripped off and tossed aside by hungry prowlers, causing the family to spend hundreds of dollars on a bear-proof garbage pail.
On Prospect Street, a half-mile road only minutes away from downtown Lee, residents are quick to point out the worn dirt paths and gaps in hedges that mark the regular traffic of the animals across their properties. Once a rare occurrence, bear sightings have become a regular, but no less jarring, part of everyday life on an otherwise quiet residential street.
“You can’t come out and sit, because you don’t know if they’re here,” said Jennifer Lindsay, a Prospect Street resident who said bears regularly traverse her backyard.
“The bears are kind of like family around here. We respect them,” she said. Still, “It’s no longer the same safe area it was.”
While the bears can be a nuisance, they tend to be non-aggressive, preferring to flee rather than engage in conflict. The state’s wildlife agency estimates there are at least 4,500 black bears living in Massachusetts, and with the population increasing as much as 8 percent each year, the bears are here to stay.
THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
As bears prepare to den for the winter, sightings have become less frequent. But around the time they start to emerge from hibernation next spring, some Lee residents are hoping legislation will be in place to discourage their meddling. A bylaw is in the works that would make it illegal to intentionally feed bears, a practice that wildlife experts say encourages bears to make repeat trips to residential neighborhoods.
The issue is especially relevant to those living on Prospect Street, as town officials have acknowledged that at least one resident there is known to regularly leave out food for bears. The resident declined to speak to The Eagle on the record, and did not confirm or deny whether she had ever intentionally fed a bear.
When Sullivan brought the issue up at a June 17 Select Board meeting, Selectman Gordon Bailey said that police had been contacted about the issue.
“I know that they’ve been there and spoken to a particular person who continues to feed the bears, put food out for them, thinking it’s a good thing,” he said.
But without a bylaw in place, calls to the Lee Police Department or local wildlife authorities to report intentional feeding usually result in little more than a warning.
Lee Police Chief Craig DeSantis estimates that the station gets more than 30 bear-related calls a year, though complaints about bear feeding specifically haven’t been received since 2024.
“We want to fix the problem,” said Lee Town Planner Brooke Healy, who is co-authoring the bylaw. “Not only for the people that live on the street, but also the animals that are impacted.”
Without a state law that prohibits intentional wildlife feeding, it’s up to communities to set their own restrictions. If a bylaw is successfully passed at the next annual town meeting in May, Lee will join a growing number of municipalities in Berkshire County that have moved to ban the intentional feeding of wildlife within the last five years. Since Stockbridge became the first to pass a law in 2021, several others, including Great Barrington, Sheffield and North Adams, have followed suit.
The Lee bylaw would be based on legislation that already exists in other western Massachusetts communities, including a Northampton ordinance that’s been in place since 2012. Residents will have a chance to review the bylaw and offer feedback before it goes to Town Meeting for approval.
Healy is writing the bylaw alongside Colby Youndt, Lee’s conservation agent. In their planned legislation, people who continue to intentionally feed wildlife after an initial warning would be hit with an increasing series of fines for subsequent offenses. (Birdfeeders would be an exception, unless they become a draw for other wildlife).
WHAT TO KNOW …
The black bear, one of three bear species found in North America, is the only one that can be found in western Massachusetts. While the bears can be a nuisance, they tend to be non-aggressive, preferring to flee rather than engage in conflict.
If you encounter a black bear, wildlife experts recommend taking the following steps:
Put as much distance between yourself and the bear as possible, but don’t run.Make noise to alert the bear to your presence, so you don’t accidentally startle it.To ensure bears don’t return, clear your property of potential food sources, such as birdseed or trash.
The state wildlife agency estimates there are at least 4,500 black bears living in Massachusetts, and with the population increasing as much as 8 percent each year, the bears are here to stay. As developed areas brush up against their habitats, bears that once foraged in woodland areas for berries and nuts are now coming near homes to scrounge up easy meals from trash cans, dumpsters and bird feeders.
The problem is made worse when residents purposefully leave food out for the bears, which erodes their natural fear of humans and leads them to frequent neighborhoods in search of their next meal.
Andrew Madden, district supervisor for MassWildlife’s western district, has worked with several towns in Berkshire County to help them design legislation around wildlife feeding. While the fact that black bears are thriving in the state is cause for celebration, he said, intentionally feeding them can lead to disaster. Bears clustered around food sources can risk spreading diseases among each other, and walking in neighborhoods with roadways can increase the chances of a bear being struck by a car.
“If you’re attracting bears to your property directly, you’re actually causing greater harm,” he said.
The Sullivans hope that the proposed bylaw, if passed, will make the neighborhood safer for both bears and people.
“We really just want to make sure that people aren’t purposely feeding the large, wild animals that could harm people,” JoAnn said.
“I wouldn’t want to see a bear destroyed or tranquilized and moved,” Shawn said. “But I’m more concerned about personal safety.”
According to Dave Wattles, a black bear specialist with MassWildlife, black bears aren’t inherently aggressive: Only about six people across the entire commonwealth have been injured by bears in modern history. The injuries usually tended to occur after a resident inadvertently stumbled upon a bear at close range, he said, and always amounted to nothing more than a superficial scratch.
“You’d do worse walking through a briar patch,” he said.
While residents are frustrated by bears rifling through their garbage and tramping through their lawns, they seem to retain a near-universal affection for the animals themselves.
Lori Koperek, a longtime Prospect Street resident who recently caught a bear on her home security camera, worries that the animals might bring harm to her dog or an unsuspecting pedestrian. But what really sticks out in her mind is the old wildlife mantra: “A fed bear is a dead bear.”
“I’m also worried about the bears,” Koperek said. “If they react to something, they’re the ones that are going to be dead. I’m worried all the way around.”
WHAT TO KNOW …
The black bear, one of three bear species found in North America, is the only one that can be found in western Massachusetts. While the bears can be a nuisance, they tend to be non-aggressive, preferring to flee rather than engage in conflict.
If you encounter a black bear, wildlife experts recommend taking the following steps:
Put as much distance between yourself and the bear as possible, but don’t run.Make noise to alert the bear to your presence, so you don’t accidentally startle it.To ensure bears don’t return, clear your property of potential food sources, such as birdseed or trash.