STANWOOD — Sgt. Jennifer Maurstad wouldn’t win any culinary contests with the meal she prepared the other day.
The entree was stinky fish, rotting apples and bananas and fruit tarts.
It is a feast she hopes only a bear would love.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife agent left it in a large section of corrugated culvert pipe atop a trailer in the center of I-5 near Stanwood. There’s only one way in and that closes shut with a tug on the food bag.
The past few days brought a steady stream of calls from people reporting they had seen a black bear in the broad median of grass, cedar and pine that separates six lanes of northbound and southbound traffic.
With cars and trucks whizzing by at 70 mph, the situation is considered too dangerous to do nothing. Drivers easily could become distracted and cause accidents; the bear’s odds are even worse.
“Most of the time we like to leave things alone,” Maurstad said. “But I would also like to see this bear have a shot at living a full life.”
It’s not the first bear to find room and board in the median.
“We have had reports every year for the last three or four years,” she said.
Last July a small bear was hit on I-5 close to where the trap is set now.
In 2010, a bear was killed on southbound I-5 near Everett Mall Way.
The new bear spotted near Stanwood is believed to be young, weighing roughly 150 pounds.
In the spring, black bear diets consist mostly of plants, from emerging grasses and sedges to horsetail and various flowering plants. The I-5 median near Stanwood is lush with tall grass to chomp on and features plenty of woodsy cover.
If the bear does end up in the trap, it will be tranquilized and given an ear tag for monitoring before being given a long one-way ride deep into the woods to establish a new home.
The bear trap has worked in the past.
In 2009, a 200-pound black bear that was making its home in the median, eluded game wardens, state troopers and tribal wildlife agents for days. Doughnuts, fish and maple syrup proved its undoing. It was trapped and relocated.
An estimated 25,000 to 30,000 black bears live in Washington, according to Fish and Wildlife.
They typically avoid people but can wander into residential areas, attracted by garbage, pet food and bird feeders. As a precaution, pet food should be kept inside and garbage should be put out in the morning.
Anyone seeing a bear at a close range should remain calm and move away quietly. If the bear approaches, make yourself appear to be bigger by standing up and waving your hands above your head. And make a lot of noise to try to scare the bear away — yell, clap and stomp.
Wildlife agents offer one more piece of advice: Don’t run.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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