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BEAVER - Hikers and campers don't need to walk in terror of the state's black bears, but they should know they're around and how to get along with them, state wildlife and federal forest officials say.

Bright yellow posters, clever pamphlets, caution signs near bear traps and even instructions bolted to forest picnic tables will replace wan small-print placards now decorating campground kiosks, all in a new education blitz.

The message: If you're in a Utah forest, you're in bear country. Wise up.

It's been a year since a bear attacked a tent and dragged to his death an 11-year-old Utah County boy in American Fork Canyon. It was state's first and only documented fatal bear attack.

Responding to public outcry, Uinta National Forest officials last fall worked with their campground concessionaire to replace accessible garbage containers with bear-proof receptacles by Memorial Day.

But due to pending litigation, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Loyal Clark stopped short of saying Samuel Ives' death was the catalyst for the new education program or other safeguards. State wildlife officials were in the same bind.

But there's little doubt the attack shocked people into a new awareness, at times overwrought, that wild animals are all around them when they are outdoors.

The boy's parents in March filed lawsuits seeking more than $2.5 million from the Forest Service and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, alleging the agencies should have warned campers about the bear, which had been spotted earlier, and closed the campground until the animal was caught and killed.

Citing Samuel's death and an increase in bear nuisance reports, the Utah Division of Wildlife last year issued 20 percent more bear-hunt tags, bringing the total to 299. Most of the extra permits were for northern, central and northeastern Utah, where people encountered bears the most in 2007.

The spring bear hunt season ran from April 12 to May 31. Areas with livestock had an extra week for the season, said Kevin Bunnell, DWR mammals program coordinator.

The late winter in the high country kept the bears in hibernation longer, so hunters bagged fewer than in an average season, Bunnell said. Hunters took 68 bears this spring, compared to 78 in 2007 and 54 in 2006. One bear was killed on Cedar Mountain because it had become too active around some cabins, he said.

So far this year, Utah Division of Wildlife officials have caught and relocated three juvenile bears that were too close to humans. The number isn't unusual, Bunnell said. The bears are still in their home area, but are about 50 miles away.

One of the bears was getting into bird feeders on cabin porches. "We didn't want him to develop bad habits," Bunnell said.

Rangers are taking pains to contact people in the backcountry as well as in campgrounds to hand out bear-related information, but "we can't take care of everybody out there," Clark said. "You can do everything right, and something can still go wrong."

Gary Lamers, host for Little Reservoir Campground in Beaver Canyon for four years, saw cougar tracks around the fishing pond last weekend. A camper reported seeing a bear run up a hill after drinking from the creek. If forest rangers hear of a sighting within a mile of the campground, they make sure Lamers knows about it.

But even those who know the drill can be in trouble because previous campers were lax, Bunnell said.

"A bear comes in the night, you don't even see it," Bunnell said. "But it may come back when someone is there."

Such careless inconsideration might be one of the worst sins campers commit, said Duke Hollingshead, a Minersville resident who was trout fishing Little Reservoir in Beaver Canyon last weekend with his son, Wade Hollingshead, and preschool grandsons Crayton and Rexton.

Father and son said they police campsites when the arrive, and usually find bear bait. "There's always trash," said the elder Hollingshead. "Pop cans. Bears like the sugar."

While it's a joy to see wildlife, it's best to keep one's distance.

"People mistake them for tame animals, and they're not," said Duke Hollingshead. He runs livestock, and even cows can turn scary, he said.

Wade Hollingshead said he was sorry it took last summer's tragedy to get people's attention. That's the way it goes, his dad said.

"We're not afraid of bears," Duke Hollingshead said. "But we respect them. And we know sometimes things happen you can't explain."