bears from getting them all?

Most of our property is forested with alot of wild hazelnuts (and plums and blackberries but that is another story) and I pretty well have given up ever getting any nuts from them. The nuts never get a chance to ripen on the tree (turn brown which is what I expect them to do but perhaps I am mistaken) because all the wildlife around here feast on them well before that stage.

So do you have any experience with them? I am harvesting a bunch green (because the squirrels are already cutting them all down!!!!!) and am going to try to dry them in my dehydrator.... any other suggestions or ideas (other than a BB gun)?