VERNON Last Tuesday, Patricia Reiche was walking home from the new park at Highland Lakes with her son Sean, 10, when she heard a commotion. People told her that witnesses had seen a bear trying to break into a house and that Fish and Wildlife officials had shot her. The cubs had followed their mother up the tree trunk as she sought refuge in a tree and were whimpering with fear as their mother lay dead in the branches above them. Wildlife biologists were trying to dislodge the cubs by shooting them with tranquilizer darts. After the biologists tranquilized each cub, they caught it in a tarpaulin as it tumbled from the tree, Reiche said. “The Fish and Wildlife biologists were very cool about what they were doing, and they made it an educational thing for the children and others who were watching,” Reiche explained. Tracy Leaver of the Woodlands Wildlife Refuge in Alexandria Township in Hunterdon County took the two little cubs. The refuge is the only facility the state has certified to care for orphaned or injured bears. The cubs joined the collection of raccoon babies, squirrels, opossums, turtles and one bullfrog already guests at the refuge. Leaver said she was stunned by what happened next. By the end of the week, two more bears had been shot in the Highland Lakes area for attempting to break into homes and five more cubs orphaned. With other cubs already being cared for, now the refuge had nine four- to five-month old, still-nursing cubs to foster. “We count on having one or two cubs a year,” Leaver said. “We don’t have money in our budget to care for nine young bears, but we are always ready to rise to an occasion.” Funds to run the refuge come from public generosity n there is no state or federal funding. But Leaver said that state wildlife officials have said they would try to find a grant to help raise the bear cubs. Those wishing to make a donation should write to Leaver at Woodlands Wildlife Refuge, P.O. Box 5046, Clinton, New Jersey 08809, or visit woodlandsrefuge.org for more information and updates on the bear cubs.