Rockland is a third parkland. So, is it a big surprise that our lawns and gardens are decimated by deer and our garbage cans raided by black bear?

Today, Haverstraw police are reporting the sighting of a mama bear and three baby bears around Pomona. (Story here.) And Rockland County Legislator Gerold Bierker, C-Bardonia, is proposing a county law to allow bow-hunting for deer in some of Rockland’s county parks. (Westchester is allowing  bow-hunting this fall in some of its county parks as a way to curb the burgeoning deer population.) “The goal of this thing is deer management,” he told staff writer Laura Incalcaterra.

Plenty of complexities exist with wildlife in the suburbs. Development pushes both species, and others, farther out from the safety of forested area. In the suburbs, the deer become more than garden pests — they are a danger for drivers, their proximity to people are blamed for the spread of Lyme disease and their growing numbers (in part because of dwindling natural predators) have led to damage of the forest understory, which jeopardizes other species and plant life. And bear? Well, that’s just plain scary. While Haverstraw Lt. Martin Lund told staff writer Jane Lerner that “Black bears don’t pose a threat to humans,” there are real safety issues with bear in close proximity to humans — and the smorgasboard of household trash. Check out this article from the Humane Society of the United States.

But what are the solutions? Is the best policy for bear that wander into neighborhoods to wait them out and see if they return to the parks, or tranquilize them and move them upstate, or something else? And, is deer hunting the answer for the overrun of deer?

MAY 2000 FILE PHOTO: New York State Environmental Conservation Police officers shout to chase a young male bear higher into the tree where it had spent most of the afternoon. The bear wandered through West Haverstraw before being chased up a tree on Overlook Road. They needed to chase the bear to a higher position so they could spread a net to break his fall when he was tranquilized.