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Bears Spotted In The Triad; No Attacks

The local population of black bears has risen in recent decades. Photo: Mike Carraway/North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

Spring in the Triad can bring budget battles, commencement speeches, and soggy gardens. And it also means the bears are back in town.

Forsyth County authorities say they've received reports of one or possibly two black bears in Clemmons.

And Winston-Salem police tweeted about a bear sighting on Jonestown Road near Interstate 40.

There haven't been any reports of bears attacking anyone.

Wildlife officials say it's not unusual that bears have been seen near homes and businesses.

Jodie Owen is with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. She tells The Winston-Salem Journal that sightings of black bears in Forsyth and Guilford counties are common in the spring every year.

Owen says her advice is the same every year, too.  Leave the bears alone and they will probably move away without prodding.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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