Second bear killed at Utah Boy Scout camp

Only four weeks after a Boy Scout camp leader shot and killed a bear in a Scout camp in the Uinta Mountains, officials from the Division of Wildlife Resources had to put down a second bear after it was spotted intruding into the camp.

Phil Douglass, DWR northern region conservation outreach manager, said the black bear was killed on Tuesday after attempts to haze the bear out of the area were unsuccessful.

Scouts first reported the bear about three weeks ago at the Hinckley Scout Ranch in the northern slope of the Uintas. After several hours, DWR officials managed to chase the bear out of the area.

But when it came back this week, the bear was aggressive and acclimated to humans and their food, so officers had to put the bear down, Douglass said.

"This is a situation that we feel can be avoided," Douglass said.

Many people in Utah don't realize that the state is indeed bear country, and they don't take the necessary precautions of storing food so that it doesn't attract bears.

"We're not quite there yet in Utah," Douglass said. "We need people to more rigidly practice common sense."

DWR took over the investigation of a shooting of a bear in the same campground on July 11. The camp director shot and killed a bear that had wandered into camp and was eating a bag of candy bars left on a picnic table.

kbennion@sltrib.com