REEDSPORT — They’re back.

Autumn and the bears. The evidence shows on the daily police log.

A bear was seen sitting in the roadway early Tuesday morning at Winchester Avenue and Sixth Street. A bear and cub were seen in a yard in the 200 block of Westmont the afternoon of Oct. 8.

Sour weather and decreasing food supply this year will drive ursus americanus — black bear — to step up its search for easy meals.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife bear program coordinator Don Whittaker said bears become hyperphagic as cold weather sets in. That means they need to eat lots of food to prepare for winter. Bears at higher altitudes or in snowy regions hibernate, but black bears here take only prolonged naps.

“Food dominates their world, literally,” Whittaker said.

Black bears primarily eat berries, bugs and fruit. But bears do nibble on small animals, grass and even tree cones.

Bears in Oregon average about 200 pounds with a top-end weight of about 400-500 pounds. A single bear can cover a range of about 20-30 square miles. They also can consume up to 40 pounds of food per day.

“Anything that’s edible. If they can find it, they’ll eat it,” Whittaker said.

That includes garbage, pet food or other items potentially found around the neighborhood, especially in Reedsport.

According to assistant ODFW district wildlife biologist Bill Kinyoun, people in Coos and western Douglas counties see the most bears between Hauser and Gardiner.

“We do deal with more bears in the city limits of Reedsport than any town we work with in our district here,” Kinyoun said.

They were common visitors to the town’s garbage dump on Scholfield Road, east of Reedsport, until a fence was installed, he said.

“It basically was one big bear feeding site,” he said.

In recent years, the moochers have moved into the edges of town, foraging through trash cans. Bears looking for food also have broken into homes and cars, stolen outdoor grills, grazed in orchards and gardens, or even attacked livestock, Kinyoun and Whittaker said. The problem is worsened when people feed them willingly.

A Yachats woman was convicted of harassing wildlife earlier this year after she fed black bears, Whittaker said.

“It had got to the point where she was altering behaviors (of the bears),” Whittaker said.

Under Oregon Revised Statute 498.012, any animal that causes property damage can be deemed a public nuisance and killed.

“A fed bear is a dead bear,” Whittaker said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials must kill one or two bears each year in Reedsport, though no bears have been euthanized around city limits this year, said ODFW district biologist Stuart Love.

So far this fall, ODFW has had one complaint, from a resident on Scholfield Road.

“I don’t know why it’s such a light year, but I’m enjoying the break,” Love said.