SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Bear sightings have been on the rise in the Ozarks, with multiple people spotting the creatures over the past year.
Earlier this week, Tyler Boothe told Ozarks First about how he and his family spotted a black bear on the Fourth of July along the Chadwick Flyer Trail in Ozark.
There was also a black bear sighting at the Lake of the Ozarks and a sighting by a viewer spotted in Cabool back in May.
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) says black bears were once common in Missouri long before European settlement. However, many years of unregulated hunting and other activities removed them from the population…