Apples in bear country

[4wanderingeyes]

The last couple years I have had bear destroy a couple apple trees on me. These were obviously trees that had apples on them through the fall. I was wondering if it would be smarter to just pick off the apples this year when I am done hunting, so not to entice bear to break more trees.

In my area baiting is legal (I do not bait normally) so if I picked the apples and tossed them on the ground, I would assume I would be legal. I just thought it would be a safer bet for my trees. Has anyone else done this in the past? Or would do it hypothetically if baiting was legal in your area?

 

[Terrific_tom]

The last couple years I have had bear destroy a couple apple trees on me. These were obviously trees that had apples on them through the fall. I was wondering if it would be smarter to just pick off the apples this year when I am done hunting, so not to entice bear to break more trees.

In my area baiting is legal (I do not bait normally) so if I picked the apples and tossed them on the ground, I would assume I would be legal. I just thought it would be a safer bet for my trees. Has anyone else done this in the past? Or would do it hypothetically if baiting was legal in your area?

Check with your local game warden. If your apples amounted to more than 2 gallons, it might be construed as over baiting. Also if you did this before deer season it could be considered baiting before the season which is illegal. Sort of like brush hogging corn before season.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I often pick off the apples on my Wisconsin property because of bear concerns, but I keep the apples and eat them. If the apples are damaged or wormy I just throw them out for some critters to eat. Even though I pick the apples I still have a bunch of bear damage and the worst seems to come in spring when no apples are anywhere. I think sometimes the bears just get bored and like to tear up things for no good reason.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^^^^ Agree. Younger bears, in particular, just seem to like to explore and test everything they encounter. I've seen bears run and jump into a pond like a little kid, then swim around in it for another 15 minutes of frolicking and splashing. We've had a couple apple trees get bent and have limbs broken with no apples on them - probably just because the bears could reach them and they felt like toying with the springy things.

 

[Apple Junkie]

Like you, we have bears in our area too. I have made peace with the fact I will have some bear damage, but I make every effort to get the trees up to the size where they can withstand loosing a lower limb or two. To do this, I make sure I have a strudy fence around them with 2 strong metal posts. Then, I pick all the apples from them so there is nothing to tempt them so hopefully they move on to other trees that are dropping. Once the trees get so big that I can't easily reach the apples, I just cross my fingers. So far, I have not lost a tree, but occasionally a tree might suffer a broken branch here and there from a hungry bear. It's a shame to loose a promising tree, sorry the bears got to yours... good luck.

 

[Prof.Kent]

I don't have bears around but I would think the bear would get all the apples he wants by shaking smaller tree without breaking them.
If the apples are falling under the tree you aren't baiting. If you move them and heap them in a pile, you're baiting.
Farmers that dump their leavings back in the field are not baiting. But if you hunt over it the DNR might think differently.

 

[JFK52]

I have 28 mature apple trees on my land in Central WI and have never had any bear damage. There are black bears in the general area and I have seen evidence of them on my land. For what ever reasons, they just leave my apple trees alone.
As for this year, I have seen all my apple trees dropping their apples early. I have one large tree that has green apples on it. They are still on the tree in late December in most years. This year they are falling off the tree at present and have been for weeks. I can only think the three weeks in summer where there was only .4 of rain caused the trees stress.

 

[rocksnstumps]

I don't have bears around but I would think the bear would get all the apples he wants by shaking smaller tree without breaking them.
If the apples are falling under the tree you aren't baiting. If you move them and heap them in a pile, you're baiting.
Farmers that dump their leavings back in the field are not baiting. But if you hunt over it the DNR might think differently.

Shaken not stirred.......No! They just beardoze stuff over when trees are young. Your tree will be pretty much at a 15 degree angle if not busted off. Good thing the young ones are springy and you just restake and hope for the best. So far only crabapples but soon will have other grafted ones putting out fruit and getting taller. This was the first year for small amount of fruit on several of them and I picked them all early on trees under 2" diameter or so.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Oh I know the youngens are a Nuisance, they will eat my trail cameras, knock my grill over, take off with my garbage cans, poop in my deer stand, they have damaged about 10 Apple trees in the last 5 years, but they all had late hanging apples.

 

[mikmaze]

be happy they aren't bothering your chestnuts, my dunsans have been targeted recently, 8 foot up at first crotch trees are about 2.5 - 3 inch in caliber and the bear though oh cool, I can break those right at the crotch........ yeah, let him try it in daylight when I am on stand.... might just set a 75 yard pin just for the occasion.

 

[Diesel5610]

If you live in a bear area you learn to live with them. I do pick the apples off my younger trees to keep the bears from ripping branches off, they still do sometimes anyway just for fun. I go through every fall holding my breath that they don't destroy too many of my young trees. Nothing like getting a tree 5 years or more toward being a really nice tree and then having the bears absolutely trash it.

 

[Scott S]

I sympathize with all of this. Moose/bear murdered all of my apple trees in 1 year.

 

[CedarSwamp]

We have lots of bears in our area. 15 years ago they damaged several trees per year. For the past 10+ years they haven’t touched a single tree.

We have a lot of people baiting bears around us and plenty of corn fields. Not sure why they don’t touch the trees anymore. We plant new ones every year so we have trees of all sizes. Maybe they’re too busy with the bear bait and corn fields....but it’s probably just us being really really lucky the past 10 years.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Just a follow up on this, I did decide to ask the Wisconsin DNR about it, I was told, the trees are naturally growing, they are on my own private land, and they are my trees, he said I can shake them any time I want to, (his exact quote)

"Thank you for contacting the Department of Natural Resources. Yes, because the trees are on your property and are naturally growing, you can shake the apples off at any time."

Now I think the key word here is "SHAKE", that wouldnt not include making piles of them in front of your deer stand, and hunting over them, unless it was under the allowed quantity of bait allowed.

 

[Gator]

When you say "if it would be smarter to just pick off the apples this year when I am done hunting" do you mean done for the year or done for the day?

I think removing the fruit would be a great idea. I hate bears and hated even more every time I had fruit tree damage from them. The Virginia biologist for my area told me to "put a ring of boards around the trees with nails sticking up through them. Bears don't like their feet stuck!"

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Done for the year