It's said to be a phenomenon cropping up all over the eastern half of the United States: The black bear population is surging. And with the increase, more and more bears are visiting populated areas. Now, bear sightings are not uncommon for many of our readers in locales rural. But just last week, a bear was captured in Plum. And a few years back, there was a celebrated case of a bear that for days roamed the cul-de-sacs of Upper St. Clair. The best advice we can offer should a bear amble into your world is to leave it alone; it will go away, eventually. If it threatens you, however, well, that's another story. Which brings us to the tale of one Robert Ooten of Stafford County, Va. The U.S. Army master sergeant could be jailed for six months, fined $1,000 and forced to pay a $1,000 bear-replacement fee for killing a 200-pound black bear on May 19. The charge• Killing a bear out of season. Never mind that the 20-year military veteran says the bear, one of two that came onto his property, threatened him. Authorities, who weren't there, say Ooten was in no immediate danger. Instead of shooting Yogi, Ooten should have yelled at it, or banged pots and pans to shoo it away, they said. Bears don't like that, a Virginia Game Department official noted. Well, humans don't cotton to being threatened by bears, either. And the last time we checked, no game commission that we know of offers a people-replacement program. Dear readers, should you be threatened by a bear and have the means, shoot it once, shoot it twice, and shoot down with your shots the misguided notion that a bear's life is more valuable than your own.

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