A few months ago a lady on Nextdoor started posting about a bear living on Black Hill. She posted about the tracks she saw near the trashcans and she spoke with the neighbors who heard unknown sounds nightly. Fast forward maybe a month or two, that same bear had a sweet cub and they were spotted in the marshlands right off South Bay. The next thing we knew, mama made her way up a tree in Baywood and was relocated to Los Padres. I wondered if baby bear would be found and relocated, or if our town of Los Osos could finally start living up to its name.
This is where the story takes a sad turn. Last Tuesday night I was driving South Bay and I saw something lying on the side of the road. I immediately turned around at the query trail trying to think it was just my imagination, it wasn’t. There, just off the embankment, laid that sweet cub. I began to sob with gut wrenching pain. I couldn’t believe that all the hoping and wishing I had done for that bear to survive here, was all for me to see it lifeless on the side of the road.
The point of this letter is not to offend or anger people the point here is SLOW THE F DOWN!!!!!! The wild fire season endured throughout the state and our narrowly untouched forest landscape make the perfect climate for new critters to feel welcomed here. How can animals survive if negligence while driving is far too common? I for one have slowed way down since May because I noticed more foxes scurrying across old creek. So, please, for the sake of the other creatures still with us, slow down, get off your phone, and pay attention to the world while you drive.
Gina Spalione
Morro Bay