June 6, 2000 Bozeman Chronicle article by Scott McMillion: Church tries to save bears
LIVINGSTON -- Concerned for the local grizzly bears and potential conflicts between the bears and people, the Church Universal and Triumphant has begun bearproofing a site for county dumpsters on its property near Yellowstone National Park, a church spokesman said Wednesday.
The dumpsters, traditionally located near the bridge over the Yellowstone River at Corwin Springs, attracted grizzly bears last fall and again this spring, church spokesman Chris Kelley said.
A mother bear and two young cubs were seen there this year.
After the spring bear visits, the dumpsters were temporarily moved to Gardiner, where a bearproof dumpster site has worked for several years, said Ed Flatt, manager of the Park County Refuse District.
When grizzlies get a taste of human food or garbage, they often learn to return to the site and can become increasingly bold around people, which increases the risks to both people and bears. Wildlife managers are often forced to kill aggressive bears.
Garbage-eating bears were common in and around Yellowstone until the park closed its last dump in 1970 and other communities bearproofed their own dumps several years later.
The number of human/bear encounters dropped significantly after people started putting garbage out of reach.
To bearproof the dumpster site at Corwin Springs, the church will pay for building a chainlink fence around the site.
The church's ranch abuts Yellowstone's northern border. Kelley, an avid outdoorsman, said he has seen increasing numbers of bears on the ranch in recent years.
"We don't want anybody to get hurt," Kelley said. "We don't want to create a problem bear and we don't want to create any problems for the bears."