Editor’s note: Although the following article comes to us courtesy of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation the information it contains can be applied in any area where bears live and roam.

  With the onset of warmer weather, New York's black bear population will be on the move. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today issued guidance on how to prevent nuisance bear encounters.

  Black bears will take advantage of almost any readily available food source, including bird feeders and garbage. To prevent encounters between bears and humans, people should never intentionally feed bears and should take every precaution to discourage bears from seeking out food sources in neighborhoods and other residential areas.

  Typically, black bears are timid and will avoid all contact with humans. However, bears will become a nuisance and can cause significant damage if they believe they can obtain an easy meal from bird feeders, garbage cans, dumpsters, barbeque grills, tents, vehicles, out-buildings or houses.

  It is not only illegal to intentionally feed bears, it is also illegal to inadvertently feed them. Specifically, after written notice from DEC, the incidental or indirect feeding of bears through food attractants such as garbage, pet food or bird seed is illegal. DEC has the authority to require the removal of these and other food attractants when bears become problematic.

  It is in the best interest of both bears and people for bears to get their food solely from wild sources. Once a bear learns to associate certain structures with food, it can become a serious nuisance to people and a threat to itself. Bears that lose their natural fear of humans are much more likely to be illegally shot, hit by an automobile or destroyed under a DEC nuisance permit. Some studies suggest that when a bear is fed (either directly or indirectly), its life expectancy is cut by as much as 50 percent.

  Once a bear becomes a problem, DEC is often asked to relocate the bear. Contrary to popular belief, bear relocations are rarely effective at solving the problem. Bears are extremely mobile and have excellent homing abilities. Relocated bears often return to their original capture site or may continue their bad habits at a new location. If the circumstances that led to the original problem are not corrected, other bears will quickly be attracted to the site and the bear/human conflicts will persist.

  In addition to being ineffective, bear relocations are extremely time consuming and often dangerous. The heavy door on the bear traps, although not dangerous to bears, presents a potential danger to curious humans and pets. The simplest way to avoid a nuisance encounter is to remove all food sources. Removing the food source will remove the bear.

  Because virtually all nuisance bear problems are the result of hungry bears being attracted to human food, pet food, bird food or garbage, these problems can be minimized by taking these simple precautions:

  * Never feed bears. It is illegal.

  * If you believe that bears are being fed, please report it to DEC (or your state authorities).

  * Stop feeding birds as soon as the snow melts. Birds do not need supplemental food in the summer, when natural foods are most abundant.

  * Clean up all seed fragments and shells left over from winter feeding as the smell will attract bears.

  * Dispose of garbage as frequently as possible and store in a secure building prior to disposal.

  * If garbage is picked up at the curb, put the garbage out just before the scheduled pickup or place it in a roadside bear-resistant container. Do not put garbage out the night before pick-up at the curb.

  * Clean garbage cans frequently with ammonia.

  * Do not burn garbage, it's illegal and it attracts bears.

  * Do not add meat scraps, bones or melon rinds to your compost pile.

  * Clean up barbecue grills before night fall and after they cool down store them inside.

  * Feed pets indoors and store pet food indoors. If pets must be fed outdoors, take in all uneaten food and dishes before dark.

  * Turn off kitchen exhaust fans that vent to the outside whenever possible.

  * When camping, keep food out of sight and secured in the trunk of a hard topped, locked vehicle if one is available. If a vehicle is not available, hang food and garbage from a tree at least eight feet off the ground. Keep picnic tables, utensils, fireplaces and the surrounding areas clean.

  To learn more about black bears, look for DEC's DVD Living with New York Black Bears at your public library or visit DEC's website at http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/6960.html.

  Everyone is asked to respect bears as wild animals - from a distance. For more information about bears in your area, contact the nearest regional DEC office. For a list of regional offices, visit the DEC website at http://www.dec.ny.gov .

  With most of the country recording record high temperatures last month, boaters and especially kayakers and people using canoes should remember that the water can still be very cold and the threat of catching hypothermia is very high.

  "This is the time of year when paddlers get the spring fidgets and we want to remind them to dress for the water, not the air," said Todd Robertson, river programs outreach coordinator for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "The general rule is that if the water and air temperatures do not equal 120 degrees, you are at risk for hyperthermia."

  Water temperatures usually don’t hit safe levels until late April or early May and later than that in some areas so the use of a dry or wet suit is recommended if you are canoeing or kayaking this time of the year.

  What’s the difference is in a dry suit and a wet suit? A dry suit will keep your body dry if you fall into the lake or turn your canoe over while paddling a river. It will keep you dry helping to preserve body heat until you get to shore or back in the boat.

  With a wet suit you will get wet but it still helps to insulate your body until you get to shore or back in the boat and change into dry clothing.

  Here are a few safety tips from the American Canoe Association for cold water conditions:

  * Always wear your lifejacket. Hypothermia causes the loss of coordination and movement. That along with the initial shock of hitting the cold water makes it next to impossible to put on your life jacket once you’re in the water. Plus you may injure yourself further hampering your efforts. A lifejacket is necessary to stay afloat.

  * Do NOT paddle alone. Use the buddy system preferably with a few other people who have cold water experience.

  * Take a dry bag with dry clothing and towels in it.

  * Tell your family and friends where you are going and when you can be expected back.

  * Don’t wear cotton as it absorbs cold water. Make sure to use a proper layering system underneath or on top of your wetsuit/dry suit.

  Canoeing and boating in the spring can be fun after a winter of being stuck inside. Proper preparations will minimize the dangers.

  For more tips and information on cold water boating and paddling visit the American Canoe Association web site at: http://www.americancanoe.org/resource/resmgr/sei-educational_resources/brochure_cold_water_survival.pdf

  Source, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, www.iowadnr.gov.

   I reckon I was wanting a hunting dog for some time, but when we got Tippy she didn’t look like much more than the house dog she was supposed to be. She was a puppy, barely weaned and unlike her older sibling Dale, we were not going to keep her in the house. My grandma and grandpa always believed animals belonged outside. Dale belonged to my great-aunt and uncle and he was a playful light brown dog that my brother and I loved. So when Dale’s momma had puppies again we ended up with one.

  We named her Tippy because she had a white belly, but the rest of her was light brown all the way out to the tips of her paws and these were white. Grandpa named her and since she was going to be a yard dog, I didn’t really care.

  I was excited because we got a slightly older German Short-hair pup named Fraulein and I was looking forward to taking her hunting and shooting over her. At the age of 12, I was ready to shoot or hunt over just about anything.

  My grandpa and grandma Falconer lived out in the country and I had free roam of several hundred acres owned by them, my uncle and C.A. Overstreet. Mr. Overstreet’s land was posted, but Grandpa would make me call him every fall and get permission to hunt.

  Grandpa would tell me, “Son, don’t ever assume you have permission just because you did last year. No one ever gets mad about being asked permission again if they let you go hunting the first time.” So I kept up good neighborly relations and I kept Mr. Overstreet’s property from being overcrowded by squirrels, rabbits, quail, ducks and the occasional bullfrog along the sloughs.

  Before Tippy was a year old she was hunting the meadow and the fence rows for rabbits and rats. She would sit in the yard for an hour watching a mole-hill and when that mole popped his head up, she would kill him. Sometimes she would miss and have to dig, but if that mole wasn’t into marathon digging, he lost the race.

  Tippy was scared to death of guns. We would shoot clay pigeons on the meadow and she hated the guns, heading to the back of the house. If I walked out of the house with a gun, away she went.

  I knew Tippy was a good dog and hunter and I was determined to teach her to hunt with me. Now I’m not claiming any secret to training a dog, but I know what happened and how it happened. Jerry Richardson and I took Tippy hunting with us near his place over in Cartersville. Well, she was scared to death and at the first shot of the shotguns she was gone. I mean GONE! We couldn’t find her.

  I was mad and a little ashamed of myself for not putting her on a leash. I remember telling grandma and grandpa that she wasn’t worth anything anyway because she was gun shy. Grandpa suggested I did not take her anywhere strange again if we got her back. Some of grandpa’s suggestions were more ominous than others and I filed this one in the pay attention file that is really small in a 13 year old’s mind.

  One of my grandpa’s friends from Cartersville called us and Tippy had showed up at their house. We went and got her. She was happy to see us and I was pretty happy to see her too. We sat on the porch and I done some hugging on her and she would tuck her tail between her legs and run this little circle that was her way of saying, “Man, I am glad to see you!!”

  Well, I sat there and petted her and told her, “Tippy there has to be a way for me to show you that a gun isn’t something you have to be scared of.”

  A few Saturdays later, I figured out what I was going to do. I got out Grandpa’s Browning 16 gauge and a few purple hulled #6’s for it. I loaded two in the gun and set it inside the door. Calling Tippy she came to me and I got one of grandpa’s long training leashes and a thin chain hooked together.

  Connecting the catch to her collar, I got Grandpa’s shotgun and she started cowering. Well she sat on the porch with me petting her and talking to her until she forgot about that shotgun. We heading across the back yard and crossed the gate into C.A.’s property.

  Tippy and I made a big circle around the strip pit and then along Cache Creek. We went up the little branch into Grandpa’s land and she was bouncing along at the end of the chain. We hadn’t seen a single rabbit or squirrel, but I knew where we would jump some rabbits. I also knew I wanted her to be bounced out before we got there.

  We crossed the old crossing on the creek that was still paved with rock from when it was the main road from Ft. Smith to Webbers Falls back in horse and wagon days. We hunted down the meandering creek among the post and red oaks, crossing back and heading toward a thicket of honeysuckle covered elms, oaks and ash. As we got close I saw Mr. Cottontail standing on his back haunches, sniffing the air as we approached.

  Tippy saw him too.

  The rabbit took off at an amble. I knelt beside Tippy and petted her, telling her that that was what we were looking for. I took off the leash and dropped it right there. I knew I could find it again.

  We both walked up to where the rabbit had been and she put that sniffer of hers to work. That whip-cord tail went into overdrive and I knew she was trailing the rabbit. I was moving pretty quickly to keep up when she gave a yelp and the rabbit was off and running. Little brown dog was hot on its trail. I saw the rabbit heading for the honeysuckle and I knew he would lose us both in it.

  I saw the rabbit blur through one opening, raising my shotgun toward the second and final opening and when the blur appeared, I shot once. The 16 gauge roared and I raced around to the other side of the thicket, but the rabbit hadn’t emerged. I walked back to where I’d shot at him and there he lay on the far side. Tippy was sitting beside him panting.

  She looked at me and looked at the gun and I swear I could see her saying to herself. “So THAT’S what those things are good for!”

  Tippy was a smart dog and she knew what a gun was, but she was no longer scared of them. That day started a friendship that became as close as any two humans could have. We hunted and fished and snake hunted together, going into mortal combat more than once with big thick-headed cottonmouths. We were always victorious!

  After the first time I made her stay when I crawled up on a pond to shoot ducks, she would walk beside my shoulders. She didn’t crawl, but she was short enough that she never spooked anything.

  She wanted to be there when the shooting took place, even though she would look at me like I was crazy when I tried to get her to retrieve ducks in ice cold water.

  You could touch a tree and say squirrel and she knew we were squirrel hunting. You could kick your feet in the grass and say rabbit and she knew we were rabbit hunting and she would start hitting the brush. You can call me a liar and I don’t really give a damn cause I seen her do it. A good friend of mine, Gerald Lovell, was at my grandparents one day and grandpa looked at Tippy and said, “Hey, there’s a squirrel in the corn!” Tippy immediately ran to the garden and ran the rogue corn-eating squirrel up a tree. Grandpa killed it for her and Gerald had witnessed my four-legged friend in action.

  I have lots of stories I am going to write about Tippy and this one is just the first. She was one of my best friends and anyone that tells you dogs ain’t got a soul don’t know what they are talking about. She died when I was 28 years old at the age of 15. I cried pretty much all evening. Hell, I have a few tears in my eyes now. - David