Bears Seen, Time to Glean!

By Anna Kidd

Autumn is recognized in many parts of the country for apple harvest. Although people collect fruit for human use and consumption, that does not stop bears from taking notice of the sweet treats ripening on trees in areas like the Mission Valley in northwest Montana.  

The Mission Valley is located on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Flathead Reservation. This is a landscape people tend not to forget: The valley floor is green, fertile, cropped, and densely inhabited. Apple trees thrive in backyards and spring up unplanted along the banks of the valley’s irrigation ditches. Small farms, homesteads, and tribal homesites surround the towns of Ronan, Polson, and Saint Ignatius. 

This is what we don't want to see!

The Mission Range is home to thriving populations of grizzly and black bears—bears that make extensive use of both the peaks and the valley floor where resources are plentiful. As bears approach hibernation time, they aim to accumulate enough fat reserves to survive the winter months, whether that leads them to wild food sources, a local apple orchard, or a backyard fruit tree. Unfortunately, this often leads to an annual, predictable string of run-ins between homeowners and wild carnivores. People and Carnivores’ goal is to reduce human-wildlife conflicts so in this case bears are not trapped and removed.

We started a community effort, in partnership with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Natural Resources Department, to pick excess fruit from apple trees growing in area yards, parks, and subdivisions that create a high potential for bear conflict. The process, known as gleaning, helps both human and animal neighbors avoid encounters. Gleaning is a way to supply excess fruit -- that would otherwise go to waste -- to distribution centers, cider mills, local businesses and farms for reuse.

Excess apples and pulp from cider pressing at the gleaning festival.

In September, we co-hosted a gleaning festival with the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes on the Flathead Reservation where more than 100 residents gathered to learn more about ways to prevent bear conflicts and how gleaning supports bear coexistence. Not only was the festival educational, the opportunity to hand-press  cider from fresh apples gave folks some good old-fashioned fun! The remaining pulp from the apple presses was then collected and given to local farmers and others to use to feed animals.

Putting one of the five old-fashioned apple presses at the festival to use.

The gleaning festival was a fun and effective way to use excess fruit while decreasing run-ins with bears, keeping both the bears and people safe.