Andrea Macko reports for Porcupine Soup that it is spring now, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is reminding New Yorkers to remove or secure all outdoor food sources to black bear visits. The DEC estimates that bird feeders are involved in more than 80 percent of the bear incidents around homes they recommend not filling them up until November 1. DEC Wildlife Biologist Jeremy Hurst said, “They can easily find [food] in bird feeders, garbage cans, pet food, in any livestock feed that you store outside.... So really those are the targets that we want to remove from the outside space and make sure they are not a problem for bears.” Anyone getting repeated visits from bears should call the DEC Region 4 office which covers Albany, Columbia, Delaware, Greene, Montgomery, Otsego, Rensselaer, Schenectady, and Schoharie counties, at 518-357-2234. “We may need to intervene to try to teach the bear that this is not appropriate behavior,” Hurst said. Read more about this story at Porcupine Soup.