Going camping? Remember that we live in a bear area.

Christopher Neely here, thinking about the slim boundary between us and wilderness here in Monterey County.

As local U.S. Forest Service and state Fish and Wildlife officials tell it, a woman went out for a solo camping trip just off southern Big Sur’s Salmon Creek trail on May 31. Around midnight, she awoke to a scratching noise and a heavy weight bearing down on her tent. Realizing this was an animal on the other side of her thin tent lining, she kicked the mass away, shimmied out of her sleeping bag and exited the tent just as the weight returned. With her flashlight on low battery, she made it out of the woods and sprinted up the Salmon Creek trail. She got in touch with a game warden who, the following morning, escorted the woman back to the campsite to retrieve her belongings. Assessing the evidence, the warden told her it was clear: this was a bear encounter.

Local officials confirm a definite increase in the number of reported bear sightings and interactions in Monterey County and Big Sur since spring of this year. There are a few theories behind this increase. Jeff Cann, a biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, says grizzly bears once had a major presence in Big Sur and the Central Coast before they were killed off about 100 years ago. He says black bears, which are the bears people are reporting in the area, could be slowly repopulating since there is no competition with grizzlies. Black bear sightings are more common in San Luis Obispo County and Cann says it’s likely bears seen in Monterey County are traveling from the south.

There are other theories. The county has seen significant wildfires since 2016, which could be ruining bear habitats and pushing them closer to where humans live and recreate. Extended droughts have also depleted water resources, sending bears on a wider search for water. Cann says although the increase in bear sightings is not extreme, there has been an undeniable increase and no one is really sure why.

“What’s happening is that, slowly, we’re starting to see bears coming into the county and people should start thinking that they are not going to go away,” Cann says. “This is probably the shape of the future. We are a bear area.”

Cann says the woman was a “trained camper” who had a bear canister with her. U.S. Forest Service officials say she also had food in her tent, which is likely why the bear was trying to enter. Proper storage of food (that is, way away from the tent) is among the crucial precautions to take while camping in a bear area.

As we ease back into some semblance of normalcy following more than a year of a mostly digital existence, there will understandably be a learning curve in real world protocol. Some adjustments are harmless, like remembering to smile without a mask again. The stakes are higher for other adjustments, such as remembering that bears are a real threat while camping in Monterey County and taking precautions is necessary.

For more information on the recommended precautions check out the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife’s tips. Cann says keeping human food away from bears not only keeps humans safe, but the bears as well. Once a bear gets used to eating human food it gets used to intruding on human habitats, which often leads to euthanization.

“The actions of humans can determine what happens to an animal,” Cann says. “That’s why we say a fed bear is a dead bear.”