Re: Another Bear "Attack"...
BILL NELSON (nelsonb@AZTEC.ASU.EDU)
Mon, 22 Jul 1996 07:38:47 -0700
I heard that her troop had gone to bed after eating
smores. That is why she had chocolate on her face.
A previous attack in Arizona was because a woman was
fishing and used her hands to brush her hair away from her
face and the smell of fish was on her hair.
It is very important in bear country to not only keep food
out of your tent but to keep yourself and your equipment
clean.
By the way, there was a report of a small black bear
at Geronimo (near Payson, AZ) last week. It was reported
by one Scoutmaster, and not confirmed by anyone else.
Bears have been very active near Mt. Lemon and above the
Salt River Canyon, but have been known to come in around
the Boy Scout camps near Payson, usually in August when the
blackberries are ripe. They may be coming down early.
Scouts need to learn to keep their equipment clean when not
in bear country as well, squirrels and other animals
will chew through the most expensive back packs to get
at food. We had an incident at summer camp of a venture scout (who
should know better, and just listened to a lecture about it)
storing sun flower seeds in his pack. He straightened out
his tent, getting it ready for inspection, and left for
breakfast.
You guessed it, a squirrel came in, ate through the pack,
pushed a bunch of stuff out of the pack (making a big
mess) then proceeded to eat the sun flower seeds
distributing seed casings all about the tent.
Needless to say his troop was not too pleased when they
heard that the commissioner had come by and the troop
was deducted points because of a messy tent!
The squirrel did not eat all the seeds, so the scout
decided to move the rest of the seeds to the adult area
(in a wooden lean-to). But he did not put it in the
wooden cabinets we had, so the squirrel came back and
proceeded to eat and distribute seed casings throughout
our area as well!
Chuck made some very good points about training, and putting
training into action.
take care,
Bill Nelson
ASM Troop 14, ADC Grand Canyon Council, Phoenix, AZ
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
