Hungry Bears, Thin Snowpack: What SoCal Backcountry Users Should Know This Season

Four federal and state agencies issued bear-aware advisories within a three-week window this spring, and the same pattern keeps showing up in each one: a winter that didn’t deliver, vegetation timing knocked off its usual schedule, and bears already moving through places where they normally aren’t this early.

California State Parks led off on April 24 with a release out of Tahoe. The National Park Service followed on May 15, joined the same day by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources weighed in that afternoon. The gist is that this is shaping up to be a long, hungry season for black bears across the West, including the ranges Southern California recreates in.

For SoCal users, the relevance lands in two places. The first is the local foothills, where black bear sightings in Los Angeles County neighborhoods have increased since the end of April. The second is the broader summer travel pattern to other wilderness areas in the Sierra, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, the Utah parks, or further afield to Glacier, Yellowstone and other western destinations.

What’s Driving It

The California State Parks release explained that Lake Tahoe snowpack sat at 24% of the April average. Warm temperatures had already triggered early snowmelt, and the bears that emerged were finding a landscape on track for a shortened season for foraging for the nuts, seeds, and berries that make up a black bear’s natural calorie base. When that food source thins, bears travel farther in search of replacements and shift toward what’s readily available, which is where humans enter the picture.

“What puts bears at greatest risk isn’t a lack of natural food, it’s access to ours,” said Sarinah Simons, a bear management specialist with California State Parks, in the agency’s release. “Encouraging close interactions, allowing bears to den under homes, or feeding bears (intentionally or unintentionally) leads to dangerous outcomes for both bears and people.”

The CA State Parks release also flagged a secondary consequence: in years with poor natural food availability, reported vehicle collisions involving bears have been shown to double or triple. Bears moving farther means bears crossing more roads.

Utah’s bear situation will likely ramp up later in the year. Chad Wilson, game mammals coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, told KSL that high-elevation areas received rain rather than snow this winter, which has kept vegetation green for now and bought a temporary buffer. Statewide mountain precipitation sat at 87% of normal, even as snowpack came in well below. The catch is duration. Without snowpack feeding the high country through the dry months, the buffer breaks down fast once summer hits, and bears push downhill. “Bears might go to places that they usually aren’t, and people might be going to places where they usually aren’t this time of year — in higher numbers,” Wilson said.

The SoCal Foothill Story

On the morning of May 4, a roughly 275-pound black bear, 3 to 4 years old, was caught on aerial cameras scaling fences and crossing yards in the area of Borden Avenue and Terra Bella Street, near Hansen Dam in Pacoima. It briefly forced a lockdown at Sara Coughlin Elementary School and was eventually tranquilized and trailered back to the Angeles National Forest. Wildlife officials believe it was the same bear that had been seen in the Hansen Dam recreation area the day before.

Six days later, a juvenile bear drew a Mother’s Day crowd on Figueroa Drive in Altadena, spending most of the day in a pine tree before working its way through neighboring yards. Pasadena Humane and L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies set a perimeter and asked onlookers to stop agitating the animal. The next Friday, May 15, a Ring camera in Canyon Country recorded a large black bear walking up to the Hooker family’s front door in Santa Clarita, hours after a bear had been reported in nearby Valencia. California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed the Santa Clarita bear was already tagged and collared.

Before all of that, back on April 23, a bear charged a hiker on the Mt. Wilson Trail in Sierra Madre. No injuries, but it’s the encounter type that matters to OSC readers. These aren’t bears wandering through neighborhoods; these are bears using the same trail you’re on.

The National Backdrop

The NPS and FWS advisories on May 15 weren’t routine seasonal messaging. They followed two high-profile incidents in early May. On May 3, Anthony Pollio, a 33-year-old hiker from Davie, Florida, went missing in Glacier National Park; his body was found three days later about 50 feet off the Mount Brown Trail with injuries consistent with a bear encounter. The day after Pollio went missing, two hikers on the Mystic Falls trail near Old Faithful in Yellowstone were injured by what NPS described as “one or more bears.”

Both incidents involved grizzly territory, and that distinction matters. Black bears — the species found in California, Utah, and across most of the West outside the Northern Rockies — generally retreat from human contact. Grizzlies are more likely to stand their ground, particularly around cubs or carcasses. The protocols overlap but aren’t identical, and food storage rules and bear spray expectations vary park to park.

The Glacier and Yellowstone attacks also reignited a national policy debate. Representative Ryan Zinke of Montana (former Trump-appointed head of the Department of the Interior) called for grizzlies to be removed from the Endangered Species list, arguing that recovery has outpaced the protections. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected a similar delisting request from Montana and Wyoming in January 2025, and wildlife advocates say the idea misrepresents the risks and solutions to preventing bear attacks. That fight will continue independent of this season.

Storage

The single biggest variable any individual controls is what bears can access. A bear’s sense of smell runs roughly seven times stronger than a bloodhound’s, according to the Forest Service, and bears remember rewarding food sources for years. “A fed bear is a dead bear” isn’t a slogan. It’s the operational outcome. Once a bear associates humans with calories, the agencies’ options narrow to relocation or euthanasia, and relocations often fail.

Scented items aren’t just food. California State Parks publishes a working list that includes food, drinks, pet food, perfume, deodorant, cosmetics, sunscreen, hair products, bug repellent, grease, soap, wipes, first aid supplies, hand sanitizer, lip balm, essential oils, medications, vitamins, lotion, and toothpaste. Anything that smells goes in the canister, the locker, or the bear box.

At developed campgrounds, use the steel food lockers that are provided, and close them even when empty. At undeveloped sites, cook and store food well away from where you sleep. The standard backcountry triangle separates sleeping area, cooking area, and food storage by enough distance that a bear investigating one doesn’t end up in another.

Don’t sleep in clothing you cooked in. Don’t store food in your tent. Don’t leave coolers in your truck bed overnight at a trailhead. If you’re car camping in a unit that requires bear-resistant storage, an IGBC-certified hard cooler is the simplest way to comply without renting a locker.

In CA State Parks, failing to follow bear food storage rules is a violation of Title 14 CCR 4323(b) and can result in confiscation, ejection, and a $1,000 fine.

Hiking

Don’t wear headphones. Stay alert near streams, dense vegetation, and blind corners where surprise encounters are most likely.
Hike in groups when you can. Keep kids close and dogs leashed.
Make noise. Talk, sing, clap at corners. Bear bells are not particularly effective; your voice is.
Carry bear spray in areas where it’s recommended and allowed. Know how to deploy it.
If you see a cub alone, leave. The mother is nearby and you do not want to be between them.
Never block a bear’s travel route. If you spot one, alter your path to give it room.

If You Encounter a Bear

The NPS protocol breaks into three scenarios. Knowing which one you’re in matters more than memorizing a single list, because the right response in one is the wrong response in another.

You spot a bear at distance, or surprise one at close range. Back away slowly and avoid direct eye contact, which a bear can read as a challenge. Speak calmly to identify yourself as human. Wave your arms slowly. Pick up small children and pets. Group together if you’re with others. Don’t run. Don’t climb a tree. You can’t outrun or out-climb a bear, and running can trigger a predatory chase response. This is also not the time to fight, regardless of species. Most encounters end here.

The bear bluff charges. Bluff charges are more common than aggressive ones. The bear’s head and ears will be up and forward, it will puff itself up, and it will bound at you on its front paws before stopping short or veering off. Stand your ground. Wave your arms above your head. Speak calmly. After the charge, back away slowly while keeping the bear in view. Do not run during a bluff charge. Running can convert it into a real one.

The bear attacks. This is where the two species diverge:

Black bear attack: fight back. Aim for the face. Use rocks, branches, bear spray, fists, anything you have. Do not play dead with a black bear. Playing dead invites continued attack.
Grizzly attack: play dead. Lie flat on your stomach, hands clasped behind your neck, legs spread to make it harder to flip you. Keep your pack on for back protection. Stay silent. Wait several minutes after the bear leaves before getting up.
If a grizzly attack persists, or if any bear is acting predatory (stalking you, treating you as prey), fight back with everything you have. Seek shelter in a vehicle or building if it’s available. Predatory bears, regardless of species, require the same response as a black bear attack.

The signs of a predatory bear are different from a defensive one: no warning behaviors, no huffing or paw-pounding, just direct approach. If a bear is stalking you, get your bear spray ready before it closes the distance.

Report all bear encounters to park staff or the agency managing the unit as soon as it’s safe. If the conflict is serious and you have cell service, call 911.

Two rules don’t change with the scenario. Never feed a bear, intentionally or otherwise. Never get between a bear and its cubs or a food source. Both situations push a bear from curious to defensive, and the season’s conditions are the reason that threshold is closer to the surface this year than usual.

Sources: California State Parks (Tahoe spring advisory, Be Bear Aware); National Park Service (May 15 bear safety release, Bear Attacks); U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; U.S. Forest Service; KSL (Utah DWR); CBS Los Angeles (Pacoima, Altadena); KTLA Altadena; NBC Los Angeles Santa Clarita; Newsweek (grizzly delisting debate).