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Source: Pioneer Press, St.mini storage Paul, Minn.July 24--Minnesota bear researcher Lynn Rogers is suing the Department of Natural Resources.In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court, Rogers asks a judge to allow him to continue his work putting radio collars on wild bears and filming the goings-on with them via his popular Internet "den cams."The action comes a day after Rogers asked Gov. Mark Dayton to essentially overturn the DNR's June decision to not renew the permit for Rogers' Ely-based Wildlife Research Institute. The DNR says Rogers' methods, including hand-feeding bears, have prompted the animals to lose their fear of humans and become a public safety threat.Dayton declined to grant Rogers his wish, but announced Rogers could seek an impartial review by an administrative law judge. That process would take 6 to 9 months, and on Tuesday DNR spokesman Chris Niskanen said Rogers "has chosen not to go that route."Without court intervention, Rogers will be forced to remove radio collars from 10 or so bears and shut down the den cams. That, Rogers has said in interviews and court documents, could spell the end to the 74-year-old's career, as well as a prime fundraiser for his nonprofit enterprises, the WRI and the North American Bear Center in Ely.The Bear Center, a major tourist attraction, still holds a game farm permit for captive animals, but Roger maintained it will suffer an "immediate and irreversible effect" if the collars come off and the den cams shut down.The DNR has been tussling with Rogers for years over his methods and assertions, which officials and biologists say create a public safety risk.The lawsuit accuses the DNR of denying Rogers due process, but at the crux of the matter is whether bears can coexists among people without fear of humans who feed them. Rogers contends they can, and in the lawsuit says the DNR has presented no scientific evidence to the contrary.In his primary study area -- Eagle's Nest Township around Ely and Tower -- more than a dozen residents are known to provide food for bears in what Rogers and his team call "diversionary feeding." The practice consists of leaving food away from homes so that bears don't seek food in homes, but elsewhere nearby. The practice has gone on for years, and in his lawsuit, Rogers states the DNR has not sought to prohibit residents from doing it.However, Rogers also hand-feeds not only the bears wearing his collars, but other wild beaself storages in the area, a population of perhaps 50. And Rogers has overseen "field study courses" -- which attendees pay thousands of dollars to take part in -- where paying customers hand-feed wild bears. In one photograph obtained by the DNR and the Pioneer Press, a teenage boy is offering bear food from his mouth, a practice Rogers has also been photographed doing.Conventional biologists strongly criticize such behavior. Bears who lose their fear of humans will undoubtedly land themselves in situations where people are fearful -- and perhaps in danger -- and bear will be killed. Such a case happened last summer when a bear collared by Rogers refused to leave the area around a garage where a mother and two children were located. A DNR officers shot and killed the bear.That bears become accustomed to people is not disputed by Rogers; he disputes that they're a danger.According to the lawsuit: "To Dr. Rogers' and the Research Institute's knowledge and belief, no person has ever been injured by a collared bear that has been the subject of their research."The DNR sees it otherwise."Since 2009, we've received 58 complaints from this area about troublesome bears, and we're hearing more and more from citizens in that area who say they don't feel safe around bears who see humans as a source of food," Niskanen said Tuesday. Niskanen declined to comment on specifics of the lawsuit, but said the agency will respond in court "by the end of this week."Niskanen emphasized that Rogers has been aware of the DNR's objections for years."We have been talking to Dr. Rogers about this issue for more than three years," he said. "We've corresponded with him and talked to him in person. The commissioner has met with him. This is not a new issue. It was because of his inability to comply that caused us to not issue a new research permit."In his lawsuit, Rogers claims DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr rebuffed several attempts to meet with him in 2012. It also cites an e-mail Landwehr sent to someone who had complained about Rogers. "We are clamping down on permit restraints while we continue to build our case," Landwehr writes. "It will be a big, public battle to rein this in, so we need good information."Dave Orrick can be reached at 651-228-5512. Follow him at twitter.com/OutdoorsNow.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) Visit the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) at www.twincities.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉