cmcdonald
Boating Accident Victim
Staff member
Administrator
Global Moderator
Supporter
"Philanthropist"
You are 100% correct John.
Over time just like any other animal, bears will change their behaviour given the right input or circumstances. It is either a lack of action or an over abundance that will change things often for the worse. Managing wildlife in populated areas takes dedication to the preservation of habitats and species while taking into account human interactions and confrontations. It's a difficult balance that often results in some animals requiring euthanizing and others to be relocated. Either way, both take resources and governments often don't allocate nearly enough to wildlife management. Uneducated and emotional public pressure usually drives wildlife managers the wrong way when their bosses take too much heat for culling bears, or deer or cougars or wolves or....you name it. That just leaves folks like yourselves in the position of having to break the law in order to protect yourself or your kids. It's mostly unnecessary and 100% not your fault.
Living at the edge of the wilderness, we absolutely cannot leave garbage out any time. Ever. I even burn my BBQ for an extra 10 mins after the food comes off to get rid of most of the scent. Even after all these years, people are still surprised when a bear comes up to their sliding glass door on their back porch, pounds on it a few times and throws their garbage cans up in the air and generally has a tantrum scaring the crap out of the occupants. I just shake my head and tell my wife for the umpteenth time that one day, one of those bears will try it here because of jackasses like those and I'll be the SOB who has to drop the bear in its tracks and will have to answer all the stupid questions from the Conservation Officer service as they assume that I'm the jackass that attracted the bear there in the first place.
Let me tell you, I have no garbage cans on my back porch nor the front. I will on occasion have fully bagged and enclosed in a can on the interior back porch (sealed up like the rest of the place) a bag of garbage that will go for disposal the next day. You cannot live at the edge of the wilderness and leave garbage out. It is an invitation for bears and other scavengers to dine. We do not have bears pounding on our doors and never have.
Even here in town we have areas that back onto the mountains and most jurisdictions now issue cans that are ummm...bear resistant maybe? Certainly not bear proof. We get the odd bear and coyote right here in the 'burbs. We've taken to freezing our compostables and making sure the regular garbage is as free of food scent as is possible. The compostable stuff is picked up weekly so it goes out frozen...greatly lessening the odors. We haven't had any trouble since doing that. I know other folks who don't get city garbage pick up and they have a freezer dedicated to garbage...LOL. Gotta do what ya gotta do I guess.
Over time just like any other animal, bears will change their behaviour given the right input or circumstances. It is either a lack of action or an over abundance that will change things often for the worse. Managing wildlife in populated areas takes dedication to the preservation of habitats and species while taking into account human interactions and confrontations. It's a difficult balance that often results in some animals requiring euthanizing and others to be relocated. Either way, both take resources and governments often don't allocate nearly enough to wildlife management. Uneducated and emotional public pressure usually drives wildlife managers the wrong way when their bosses take too much heat for culling bears, or deer or cougars or wolves or....you name it. That just leaves folks like yourselves in the position of having to break the law in order to protect yourself or your kids. It's mostly unnecessary and 100% not your fault.
Living at the edge of the wilderness, we absolutely cannot leave garbage out any time. Ever. I even burn my BBQ for an extra 10 mins after the food comes off to get rid of most of the scent. Even after all these years, people are still surprised when a bear comes up to their sliding glass door on their back porch, pounds on it a few times and throws their garbage cans up in the air and generally has a tantrum scaring the crap out of the occupants. I just shake my head and tell my wife for the umpteenth time that one day, one of those bears will try it here because of jackasses like those and I'll be the SOB who has to drop the bear in its tracks and will have to answer all the stupid questions from the Conservation Officer service as they assume that I'm the jackass that attracted the bear there in the first place.
Let me tell you, I have no garbage cans on my back porch nor the front. I will on occasion have fully bagged and enclosed in a can on the interior back porch (sealed up like the rest of the place) a bag of garbage that will go for disposal the next day. You cannot live at the edge of the wilderness and leave garbage out. It is an invitation for bears and other scavengers to dine. We do not have bears pounding on our doors and never have.
Even here in town we have areas that back onto the mountains and most jurisdictions now issue cans that are ummm...bear resistant maybe? Certainly not bear proof. We get the odd bear and coyote right here in the 'burbs. We've taken to freezing our compostables and making sure the regular garbage is as free of food scent as is possible. The compostable stuff is picked up weekly so it goes out frozen...greatly lessening the odors. We haven't had any trouble since doing that. I know other folks who don't get city garbage pick up and they have a freezer dedicated to garbage...LOL. Gotta do what ya gotta do I guess.