An elderly woman died Thursday from injuries sustained when a black bear attacked her in her home near Ashley Lake on Sunday.

Flathead County Undersheriff Dave Leib confirmed that Barbara Pashke, 85, died at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

The attack is under investigation by state wildlife officials, who are still working to trap the bear. According to a Thursday press release from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the woman had been feeding bears on her property prior to the attack. The bear apparently exited through a window, but how it got into the home has not been determined.

Montana wildlife officials also stated that someone is still actively feeding bears in the area.

“Someone is hampering our investigation by continuing to extensively feed bears, making our efforts to attract and trap the offending bear that much more difficult,” Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks bear specialist Erik Wenum said the a press release.

Two female, food-conditioned bears were captured at the woman’s property and euthanized in the past two days, and both had significant amounts of sunflower seeds and millet in their digestive tracts. Neither bear is believed to have been the one that attacked Pashke.

Agency spokesman John Fraley said if caught, the person feeding the bears could face up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

“If we can determine a specific instance of where bears are being fed intentionally, I’d say we’d definitely be pursuing charges,” Fraley said. “The statute is very clear.”

But, he added, “we’re really just hoping that people will stop feeding bears.”

Wildlife managers are scrambling this fall to keep up with the influx of hungry bears that are increasingly finding sources of food near population centers throughout the region.

“It’s been higher than I’ve seen it in the nearly 10 years I’ve been here, and most of that is due to the nature of the year we’ve had weather-wise,” said Kim Annis, the bear management specialist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Libby. “We’ve had very low rain and moisture, which resulted in a low berry crop. Not just huckleberries, but the more important foods this time of year. Serviceberries, chokecherries and hawthornes were very poor this year, and as a result bears have had to look harder, walk farther and follow drainages where we typically place our homes and towns.”

Tasked with responding to bear sightings and encounters in Lincoln and Sanders counties, Annis said Thursday that it had been a relatively slow day for her — with just 11 calls by 2 p.m.

Lately, she’s been averaging between one and two dozen reports every day.

Along with other wildlife managers, she’s been working overtime lately, trapping potential problem bears and warning residents to remove fruit from trees on their property and keep trash and other attractants safely indoors. So far she hasn’t had any bear attacks, but there’s no guarantee that trend will last.

“If you leave it out, a bear will find it,” she said. “We’re pretty much down to begging and pleading.”

In the residential areas from Trout Creek up to the Yaak Valley, she responds to bear sightings and encounters around the clock, including in the middle of Libby’s city limits. And in Flathead County, the volume of bear reports has been even higher.

“We’re phenomenally busy,” Wenum said Thursday. “We’re averaging between 35 and 40 calls every day, Monday through Monday.”

He agreed that the main culprit this year is the drought, with a lack of natural foods prompting bears to increasingly seek out fruit trees and other sources of food near residential areas. Conflicts normally escalate in the fall, when the bears’ natural diets shift to lower-elevation foods such as rosehips and chokecherries. But he said this year has been particularly severe.

“The big ones are making sure you do not have any feeders out, and make sure trash is secured in a locked building, garage or shed. If you haul your trash, don’t stockpile it,” he added.

The combination of readily available food from humans and record drought this year could prolong the bear season. Annis noted some of the bears she has trapped have already accumulated a healthy layer of fat, but others are on the thinner side.

“If they’re not actually building fat but losing it, they have no choice but to go to bed,” Annis explained. “But as long as they’re finding food they’ll stay out all winter long.”

And given the rash of humans providing bears with easy sources of food, both intentionally and unintentionally, the consequences may be felt for years.

“Bears are one-time learners — they’ve now learned it, so they know it for life,” Annis said. “If there’s another poor food year, all the bears will go right back to those areas. And next year is not looking all that great resource-wise as far as water goes. That’s why we work so hard to get bears to never learn these things in the first place.”

Reporter Megan Strickland contributed to this story.

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.