Coming Together for Bears

September is Bear Aware Month in Montana, bringing attention to the typically frequent human-bear conflicts in Fall when bears need to fatten up. To keep bears alive and people safe, this year, we’ve been looking at larger-scale ways to reduce conflicts.

In January, People and Carnivores launched our Bear Smart Community resource program to support projects that will reduce human-bear conflicts at a community level. We’ve been approached with some ambitious and creative projects across Montana. Local community members are driving these projects, and we’re lending a hand by providing technical support from our field staff, creating relevant educational materials to spread the word about bear safety, and helping through small amounts of targeted funding.

Here’s a look at the work these communities are doing:

Pink Bench Distilling

Heirloom fruit orchards are spread across backyards in Troy. They provide more apples than people know what to do with and bring in bears looking to eat the fruit, leading to situations where bears have to be removed. Pink Bench Distilling—opening this year—is looking to get fruit out of backyards and away from bears by using them to make apple brandy and other spirits. We provided support to help fund a gleaning coordinator position and consulted with the “gleaning guru” on strategies for securing and picking fruit before it causes conflict between people and bears.

Learn more about Pink Bench here.

Northwest Field Manager, Ryan Wilbur, joined a volunteer day at Alberton’s community orchard to help install an electric fence.

Alberton

Alberton’s ultimate goal is to become a Bear Smart Community, reducing human-bear conflicts of all kinds throughout town. The Bear Smart Alberton Working Group conducted a community conflict assessment to figure out the main causes of human-bear conflict in their area. With that, they’ll be able to make and implement a community plan to address the conflicts.

In the meantime, they’ve worked to put electric fence around the community orchard (a big draw for bears); are working on projects with local residents to demonstrate ways to keep bears out of garbage and other attractants, for which we’ll provide funding; and have participated in local events to spread the word about safely living alongside bears. We’ve had the chance to join the group’s monthly meetings to consult on ways to keep moving forward and provide resources as needed.

You can follow the working group on Facebook and read more about Alberton’s decision to go Bear Smart in this article .

University of Montana

UM is looking to claim the title of the first Bear Smart campus—a fitting goal for the home of the Griz. Before graduating last spring, a group of students concerned about the number of black bears coming onto campus assessed the main bear attractants on campus and laid out a plan to secure them. Right now, UM facilities and staff members are working to secure garbage, including at outdoor cans and dumpsters. We’ve provided funding for some bear-resistant cans and to install enclosures around two dumpsters that are often visited by bears.

Now that students have returned for the fall semester, we’re joining conversations and events with others at UM to get bear safety messaging out on campus and determine how to maintain the momentum of last spring’s students.

Spanish Peaks Mountain Club

The wildlife education trailer under construction at the Spanish Peaks Mountain Club.

Located in Big Sky, SPMC is working to get bear and wildlife safety information out to wildly different audiences—full time and seasonal residents, construction crews, resort staff, and vacationers to name a few. To help share information, they put together a mobile education trailer, complete with a remote-controlled charging bear so people can practice using bear spray, molds of tracks and scat to help people with their wildlife ID skills, a TV screen to play presentations, and much more. We provided some funding for the initial build, as well as for training cans of bear spray, two bear-resistant trash cans for residents to practice opening, and educational information like our “Working in Bear Country” flyer.

The trailer can be loaned out to different groups, including many of the resorts in Big Sky, and can be hauled to staff trainings, farmers markets, and other events. Learn more about the trailer in this article.

Gardiner

Bear Awareness Gardiner is working to make sure the bears that draw people to their community stay safe. Getting residents and vacation rentals bear-resistant garbage cans is a big piece of the puzzle, as is securing garbage and grease vats behind businesses and restaurants that line the edge of Yellowstone National Park. To help with this work, P&C assisted in mapping out attractants so community leaders can better prioritize the many needed solutions there, and we cost-shared with businesses on bear-resistant dumpsters.

Beyond our resource fund, we continue to work with the first Bear Smart Community in the region—Virginia City—to sustain their bear smarts. We’re also working in other areas to either develop new initiatives or address certain attractants, including in Columbia Falls, Seeley Lake, Bozeman, West Yellowstone, and through Jackson Hole Bear Solutions in Jackson, WY.

You can support community-wide Bear Smart efforts by donating to the Bear Smart Community Resource Fund.