My friend … saw a bear crossing Fairview Road on her way home from work the other day. [Another friend] showed me a picture of the coyote she saw on the commuter part of the [Blue Ridge] Parkway last week; [another] posted pictures on Facebook of bears in her Town Mountain driveway.
The neat thing is, none of [them] freaked out about it. And neither do folks who live in gorgeous places like Wyoming and Montana. It is part of the beautiful natural scenery they enjoy while living out there. So, why do we act like we don't know what to do when we encounter our natural wildlife here in the mountains of Western North Carolina?
Recently, staff at the Wild Birds Unlimited store in south Asheville gave a talk about how to feed the birds, not the bears. This is a commonsense approach to the issue of living in an area like ours.
There is no need for scare tactics and unnecessary killing of wild animals. So my thinking is, we need to get a grip. We need to learn to live with our lovely, natural wildlife here, not destroy it.
— Angela Sego
Asheville
I have to disagree with you a little. There is a huge concern about the wild animals. I will grant you that their habitat is being destroyed. I live in a rural area, but development in the Reynolds district has pushed a lot of wild animals in our direction the last few years. We now regularly see coyotes, bear and deer whereas for the last 60 years we did not.
Last year we believe that coyotes killed 5 of our pets, this year they killed another. Just over the ridge from us in East Asheville there was at least one bear this summer that killed a few pets and some livestock (very aggressive behaviour).
So, yes, we have a problem with the increase of local wildlife and they are becoming a danger. (I am sure you will feel the same when one literally kills and eats your pet right in front of you!)
last year a 400 lb bear got with in 10 feet of my mother before she even knew it was there, she was lucky! Bears are almost impossible to hear until they are on you!
one of the schools even closed a playground because of the bear killing loca livestock.
Add to this the fact that the vast majority of people leave trash out overnight that attracts bears/coyotes etc.
so, yes, nature is beautiful, but it is also very deadly.
I hold the city and city council responsible for the danger of wild animals being close to neighborhoods.
When large developments are put close to the Parkway or in any rural area around the city, well it doesn’t take a high IQ to figure out that the wildlife have to go somewhere!
The City of Asheville needs to factor this very serious problem into the debate when considering giving the go ahead to these large, destructive developments.
We say we are a Green community, but we don’t even think about our wildlife and the preservation of their home land, as well as our own.