May 17, 2000 KPAX evening news. Bear proof garbage cans.
The bear problem in Whitefish is almost "un-bearable"...the critters are
migrating to town now that's their up from their winter's nap.
Over 30 complaints of bear activity have been filed in the Whitefish area already this
year...and bear season has just begun.
The Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, (DFWP) says that unless the community can keep bears from eating trash, the problem will only grow worse.
"We were overrun with black bear about two years ago. Literally we were spending
up to two hours a day cleaning up the bear trash."
So last spring they made the switch to dumpsters.
"That way our guys aren't wasting time picking up bear trash. Not to mention it's
good for the animals. They are not a problem any more now that we've gone to the bear
proof dumpsters."
These dumpsters have latches that humans can open, but bears can’t. Wildlife conflict
specialists, Eric Wenum, says Ptarmigan has set a good example –one that he would
like to see followed by the entire Flathead valley.
"You know there's 77-some thousand people in the valley now, it's a valley-wide, region-wide, and even north -west corner of Montana-wide problem."
Wenum says bears become accustomed to people food, and will even venture into town to
look for it. Whitefish City manager Gary Marks told me that he would love to see the town
make garbage less accessible to bears. But the problem is money. How much does a
bear-proof dumpster cost?
The kind used by Ptarmigan Village is about one thousand dollars per dumpster. And they
are shopping around for an even better product, which would be about two thousand dollars
each.
CAG Comment
This story gives the people of Ravalli some perspective of what is going to happen if grizzly bears are introduced/reintroduced into the Selway Bitterroot Ecosystem, (SBE).
Why you ask? Because there is not a habitat for grizzly bears in the SBE. Many thousands, if not millions of dollars, has been spent by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Reintroduction Committee (IGBRC) constructing a book 1.75" x 8.5" x 11" to convince congress that a habitat does exist for grizzly bears.
The book mostly contains very unscientific information about how various people from across the United States feel about the reintroduction of grizzly bears into the SBE and very biased at that because the people of Idaho and Montana are against the reintroduction..
Another issue Bitterrooters had better consider and that is the investment they will have to make in bear proof garbage cans. At $2,000 or even $1,000 a copy -- "thems big potatoes!"
End CAG Comment