Bear Minimums

It's been a while since Richard Stauffer had his last face-to-face experience with a Florida black bear.

But the Aripeka resident said the last run-in was a memorable one.

"It was a mother bear and her cubs, and it was just about this time of day," said Stauffer, a member of the Gulf Coast Conservancy who lives on Osowaw Boulevard about a mile west of Weeki Wachee Preserve.

"It's kind of a shock at first," Stauffer said. "You forget this kind of nature is that close to you, just beyond the trees, and it's something people should be aware of."

Scientists, policymakers and environmentalists like Stauffer are working to make sure the tiny black bear population in this region doesn't become just a memory.

One of the state's experts on the species who has played a role in that effort will be in Hernando County next week. Mike Orlando, assistant bear program coordinator for the Florida Wildlife Commission, will speak at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25, at the county's Community Activity Center, 205 E. Fort Dade Ave., in Brooksville.

Orlando will talk about his work on the part of the FWC to protect the species and educating humans on how they can help by being good neighbors to bears.

Orlando, who lives in Deland, is coming back to an area he spent much time in as a graduate student catching bears, sliding a tracking collar around their thick, furry necks and then letting them go. The University of Florida alumnus studied the black bear population in what's known as the Greater Chassahowitzka Ecosystem for his master's thesis at the University of Kentucky.

The area of roughly 71,000 acres extends from northern Pasco County, through Hernando and into Citrus County. It's one of eight regions in Florida that supports the state's total black bear population of 2,500 to 3,000. The species has been considered threatened since 1973, but the numbers are growing.

With 20 bears at most, Chassahowitzka is certainly the smallest in the state and likely in North America, Orlando said. That makes it all the more critical that efforts to connect the region to bigger swaths in other parts of the state are successful, he said.

"It's best to keep large areas of habitat to keep a functional population," Orlando said.

Core and corridors

To thrive, bear populations need two kinds of habitat. So-called "core" habitat is a swath of wilderness large enough to give bears enough space to avoid roads and developments. It's in these areas that female bears tend to settle to raise their young.

But the species - especially males - must have room to roam. Young males strike out in search of mates at about 18 months old, and wildlife corridors would allow bears to move back and forth.

There is prime habitat to the north in the Big Bend region, but few bears, Orlando said. The same is true for the Green Swamp area to the east that covers portions of Hernando, Pasco, Sumter and Polk counties.

A corridor linking Chassahowitzka to the Big Bend region and beyond into the Apalachicola area in the Panhandle, where the bear population is thriving, is an important goal, said Tom Hoctor, a research associate at the University of Florida's GeoPlan Center.

The outlook is good in Hernando County because conservation land owned by the Southwest Florida Water Management District, or Swiftmud, extends into Citrus County. The real work will be done north of here to fill in gaps near the Homosassa and Crystal rivers, the Crystal River power plant and the mouth of the Cross-Florida Barge Canal, Hoctor said.

Hernando will likely have a larger role in the east-west corridor to the Green Swamp, Hoctor said. The building blocks are there, including the Annetelugia Hammock east of 19, the Withlacoochee State Forest north and east of Brooksville, and the Withlacoochee River, which flows from the Green Swamp.

"It would be a little narrow in spaces, but a bear could negotiate it," Hoctor said.

For the effort here and in other parts of the state to truly be successful, the Florida Legislature must increase funding to programs such as Florida Forever to help state and local governments purchase conservation land, Hoctor said.

There also has to be cooperative efforts and coordination between state and local governments and agencies, he said.

The county made an east-west corridor a priority several years ago after the FWC and GeoPlan Center identified it as a critical linkage, said lead planner Dawn Velsor.

The corridor has been incorporated into the county's comprehensive land use plan. The county's Environmentally Sensitive Lands Committee has already purchased tracts - including some in conjunction with Swiftmud - and has other projects in the works, Velsor said. When development is proposed for the area, the county will work with developers to make the corridor a priority during the design phases, she said.

Back in Chassahowitzka, there is a movement to stop what environmentalists say would be harsh blow to the bears in the region: SunWest, a proposed mixed-use golf course community on more than 2,500 acres west of U.S. 19, just south of the Hernando/Pasco line. The plan is under review by the state and will have to be approved by the Pasco County Commission.

The development would slice through a large part of the Chassahowitzka region, said Laurie MacDonald, Florida director of the Defenders of Wildlife.

"That is a very, very vulnerable population of bears," she said. "Why would we be cutting off that lower part of their range? It shouldn't be severed."

The Defenders and other groups are pushing the county to deny the proposal. At the very least, the developer should have to rework the plan to protect bear habitat, MacDonald said.

Orlando says he is "overly optimistic" the habitat will be preserved and corridors constructed. Most people he encounters recognize the intrinsic value of keeping bears in the woods, and many realize protecting bear habitat means protecting thousands of other species.

If you go

WHAT: Talk by Mike Orlando, assistant bear program coordinator for the Florida Wildlife Commission.

WHEN: 7:15 p.m. on Thursday Sept. 25.

WHERE: Community Activity Center, 205 E. Fort Dade Ave., Brooksville.

CONTACT: Joe Murphy, 583-0870.