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Popular N.H. tentsite closes thanks to ‘food habituated black bear’ activity
“The bear has recently damaged several tents, and one easy up-screen enclosure.”
A tentsite in New Hampshire is currently closed to campers because of what officials called the “escalating behavior of a food habituated black bear.”
The U.S. Forest Service said on Friday that the Franconia Brook Tentsite, on the East Side Trail in Lincoln, New Hampshire, will be closed until the bear is considered to no longer “pose a safety risk” to visitors.
“The bear has recently damaged several tents, and one easy up-screen enclosure,” officials wrote. “The closure is needed to protect public health and safety.”
The site has two bear boxes that are mandatory for visitors to use to store food items.
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The Forest Service wrote that visitors to the White Mountain National Forest must store food in closed and locked vehicles or the bear containers, stressing that keeping a clean campsite ensures that bears and other animals don’t forage for the food.
“Improperly stored food not only attracts bears to people currently camping at a site, but lets the bear know that it can find food at that campsite in the future,” the service said. “Visitors who have not properly stored their food risk their own safety and receiving a citation.”
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