"With the Forest Service, it's standard practice for us to evaluate our procedures after all incidents, and this tragic incident is no different," said Erin O'Connor, spokeswoman for the Intermountain Region of the Forest Service, which includes all six of Utah's national forests. "We will take a look at what worked and what we could have done differently, and if we need to, we'll make changes to our procedures."

The governor extended his condolences to Samuel's family for what he called "a tragic, tragic situation."

With the number of bear encounters being reported this summer, DWR officials say the battle for human — and bear — safety isn't over yet.

Karpowitz said his division receives almost daily calls about bear sightings or bear encounters from all over the state.

"There are bears in campgrounds, bears in town, bears where they don't normally go," Karpowitz said. "They'll start looking for food and they'll travel and show up in pretty odd places. ... It's unusually early this year, normally our bear problems are later in the summer, but it's so dang hot and dry that they're already out and around."

Craig McLaughlin, a bear expert who works with the DWR, says one reason for the increase in bear sightings could be because there are more bear cubs this year. Three years ago a drought interrupted the reproduction pattern of Utah's female black bears, which cut down on the number of cubs produced that year. Females usually have a cub every other year, and the cubs stay with their mothers for 1 1/2 years.

A year ago, Utah's drought eased, so the bears that didn't produce cubs in the dry year bore cubs last year. The female bears, which normally stagger their cubs, had cubs at the same time. Those young bears are now leaving their mothers to find their own food, he said.

"They often are the ones that cause the kind of trouble people normally relate to, in and around homes, coming into town and campgrounds," McLaughlin said.

People need to be cautious in the woods and careful not to leave food that may encourage a bear to visit areas frequented by people, McLaughlin said.

"I think (the recent bear attack) will be a wake-up call to those that have seen these (bear country) signs and disregarded them for years because they never had a bear experience," McLaughlin said. "This will put the need to behave properly in bear country high in people's minds."

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