By Charly SHELTON

Last Thursday, a quiet street in La Cañada saw a new resident move in. An adult female cinnamon bear took up residence in a tree on Burgoyne Lane just north of Foothill Boulevard. The current occupant of the home, not ready to move out yet, called the authorities to come and remove the bear. The California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife responded alongside the LA County Fire Dept. and the LA Sheriff’s Dept., to make sure the bear was safely removed and relocated.

The bear, resting on a branch about 30 feet up in the tall pine tree, was shot with a tranquilizer dart and sprayed with a fire hose to try and dislodge her. She fell from one branch to another, slowly managing her own descent through the haze of tranquilizer, before reaching the ground with only about an eight-foot-drop from the lowest branch. She landed on the ground unharmed and was allowed to fall fully asleep before being lifted onto a transport truck.

JC Healy with the DFW said there were no reports of any injured bears and, once removed, all bears from the Crescenta Valley area are taken to a location deep within Angeles National Forest to be released back into the wild safely.

“The closest [bear sighting] I’ve ever seen was a few years ago. There was one on Baptiste Way, about a block away, so that’s pretty close I guess,” said Greg Phillips, who lives just across the street from the tree where the bear moved in. “This is my first bear in the wild, even though it’s not technically the wild, but it’s my first free range bear so I’m excited.”

Greg’s son, Aidan, just returned home from his first year of college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and was excited to see the bear in the neighborhood.

“I love it. You’ve got to be careful, though, because you don’t want [the bear] to get hurt, you don’t want people to get hurt,” Aidan said. “But it’s great to be able to see the animals out here when usually all you get are raccoons in the dead of night. It’s cool just to have that connection.”

  Charly Shelton