On Saturday night, an Orlando woman was mauled in her driveway by a black bear. In the past few days, five bears have been killed by wildlife officials in search of the bear that initiated the attack, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
This recent attack is indicative of a growing bear problem. ABC News reported that bear sightings in Florida have nearly doubled, though bear attacks on humans are highly unusual.
Naturally, people are quick in trying to pinpoint the reason for the attack and the uptick in Florida bear sightings. Many cite the end of hibernation, which prompts cranky, hungry bears to become more aggressive. However, officials say bears have become bolder in recent years: They walk into open garages and drag bags of trash off with the ease of a stoner walking into a 7-Eleven for a taquito and a Slurpee. And, now, they’re not shy about attacking humans who approach them.
It would be naive to pin the blame solely on unsecured garbage cans or springtime bear aggression.
A peek into Lake Mary’s history shows that unchecked rapid development in the past few decades has caused the once-rural city to grow in size — at the expense of natural land.
According to Lake Mary’s website, the suburban “city of lakes” just north of Orlando is “one of the fastest growing areas in Central Florida.” (Side note: It’s also our editor’s hometown. Go Rams!)
Since the 1970s, Lake Mary — previously a citrus-based agricultural community — has been growing as Disney development in Orlando pushed north. In the past few decades, the city has “experienced tremendous growth in residential development as well as an economic development center with hundreds of thousands of square feet of office, retail and industrial uses.”
The issue of Florida’s overdevelopment is one that Miami Herald columnist and fiction writer Carl Hiaasen has written about extensively, and it’s rooted in politics, he says.
“It’s astounding how many Florida politicians are in favor of ‘growth management.’ Such a clean, strong-sounding, utterly ambiguous phrase… And so much easier than coming right out and speaking the unspeakable, which is: We’ve got too damn many people,” Hiaasen wrote, according to the American Journalism Review. “Hearing all this, one might believe that our leaders finally have grasped the obvious fact that overdevelopment is ruining Florida.”
Florida has been predominantly wild, untamed land for most of its history. Tourism, especially in connection with Disney, has led to rapid development of areas that don’t belong to humans. They belong to wild-animal populations.
For now, the bear problem merits a Band-Aid, which is a set of bear-safety tips from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee, increased awareness about securing garbage cans and closing garages and instructions on how to scare bears away. But in the long run, Florida legislators need to take note and quit allowing land development at the expense of humans — and wildlife.
[A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 4/15/2014 under the headline "Bear attacks show state’s development problem"]
