Bobert,

You'll still be able to enjoy the wildlife in your yard if you plant attractive flowers (for hummingbirds and butterflies) and things with seeds (for the other birds) but think twice about planting any berries. Bears love them.

I worked for the Forest Service for a number of years and regularly met bears in the woods. If it was blueberry season they were intent on scraping as many berries off of the branches as possible and filling up on them. I don't recall ever stopping working when a bear was around, but we always gave them a wide berth.

I also worked for the National Park Service, and while I saw many bears over the years, the worst problem was in the Smokeys where the bears actually panhandle along the roadways, and where idiotic visitors get out of their cars and feed them. They tell their children to walk over and feed a bear so they can take a photo. They reach out of their wide-open car windows with food offerings. Real Darwin Award material. So when park rangers drive up with the green cars and the stetson hats, the bears recognize them and run off. And more than once I've been cursed by these stupid park visitors for scaring off the bears.

SRS