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Lake Tahoe Black Bears Pay the Ultimate Price Along Our Roads
California’s strange speed limit rule is causing more accidents
It’s after midnight, yet I’m still too sad and angry to sleep. I lay outside, filling my lungs with the cool mountain air, an abundance of stars dazzling the expanse of Sierra Nevada sky above me. I am thinking of Polaris, but not the North Star I can see so clearly. I am thinking of a Bear.
This Polaris belonged to a family — a family of black bears (Ursus americanus). She was born in January under a Lake Tahoe cabin, where the community was able to secretly observe their cozy sequestration through the winter cold thanks to the Cub Cam program hosted by the BEAR League. In spring, she emerged with her brother Arcturus and mother Ursula and for a few short, beautiful months they foraged and frolicked together along the shores of Lake Tahoe.
Now Polaris is gone — hit by a vehicle which didn’t even stop while she was crossing a busy road; her distraught mother and sibling along with Tahoe residents left grieving. Tragically, in just the last two weeks, seven Lake Tahoe black bear cubs of the year have lost their lives on our roads. During that same time, we also saw multiple vehicle vs. pedestrian accidents requiring hospitalization, and several major traffic collisions requiring…
