A dire warning from the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency (TWRA)in a news release that since 2019, nearly 200,000 people have relocated to the Volunteer State, making it the eighth fastest-growing state.East Tennessee in particular – with the Smoky Mountains and other high-trafficked parks where a large percentage of Tennessee’s 5,500 black bears live – has seen increased interactions between bears and people becasue people are leaving food exposed and then the bears return to those areas.