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Neighborhood Concerned About Bears

CLEVELAND TOWNSHIP — Marvin Johnson has lived on Happy Valley Road in Columbia County for more than 50 years. He’s seen bears before, but recently h...
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CLEVELAND TOWNSHIP -- Marvin Johnson has lived on Happy Valley Road in Columbia County for more than 50 years. He's seen bears before, but recently he walked outside his home near Elysburg and saw damage to his property.

"In this case here, they were after some food that I had in my building and as you can see they ripped the door apart," Johnson said.

In addition to Johnson's barn door, the bears tore apart an apple tree. They also hit a neighboring property.

"My garbage this morning when I pulled in after work was scattered for 100 yards down the road," Matthew Wagner said.

Johnson is afraid since the bears seem to be getting more aggressive they're going to try to come into his house.

"If they smell something in my house, a door's not going to stop them," Johnson said.

According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, an officer was at Johnson's home several times recently, including earlier this week. The game commission representative told Newswatch 16 bears often go after bird feeders, and Johnson has bird feeders and other sources of food on his land.

"Everything they told me basically added up to the fact that the whole problem is me living here," Johnson said.

The Wagner family next door was keeping bees. The game commission told them that hive was attracting bears. They gave it away earlier this year.

"We've got two young girls, two ankle-biting dogs, so kind of very nervous to go outside at dark," Wagner said.

As for Marvin Johnson, he's asked the game commission to trap the bears and move them someplace else, but the game commission told him no. Even so, he still has a bird feeder out and plans to keep on, as he says, living his life.

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