Don't Be Square—Be Bear Aware

By Diane Tipton, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Statewide Information Officer

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If you haven’t traveled in Central and Northwestern Montana recently, you may be surprised and sobered by the signs instructing visitors on how to avoid problems with local grizzly bears. You’ll also see signage explaining the food storage orders in effect on U.S. Forest Service lands including the Flathead, Lolo, Lewis and Clark, and Helena National Forests.

Recreating in grizzly bear country today requires good planning around the foods you bring, how you store them and how you dispose of garbage. If you don’t plan ahead and look into these food storage requirements, you will feel like a real square, because being bear aware isn’t only wise, it is required of visitors on these public lands.

USFS food storage restrictions are for the public’s safety and to foster grizzly bear recovery by preventing bears from becoming food-conditioned—that is conditioned to find an easy meal from garbage cans, coolers and the like.

Bold signs explain the food storage orders and offer tips on how to behave in bear country. All food and garbage, including pet and livestock food, must be suspended 10 feet in the air and four feet out from any support, or stored in a hard-sided camper, vehicle trunk, cab, enclosed horse trailer, or in an "approved bear resistant container. "

Bear savvy folks know that the usual cooler or plastic storage box is not bear resistant gear. Approved, bear resistant products meet the specifications of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee.

So how does the average person get with the program and find bear resistant products?

A small industry is growing around supplying bear resistant food storage. The products must be able to stand up to testing protocols similar to those used by state and federal officials to certify products for use on public lands.

"Testing with real grizzly bears in a controlled setting ensures that when people pay for a bear resistant product they actually get something that is bear resistant," said Patti Sowka, who manages the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Wildlife Rehabilitation Center which specializes in the care of bears and who assists with bear resistant testing in Montana.

Bear resistant testing in Montana is done with grizzly bears. Sowka has worked with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, the USFS, Montana bear managers and the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone to test products and refine the testing protocols.

She said some products may not fully meet the USFS guidelines for use on public lands—that means it is even more important for consumers to educate themselves about the guidelines and the products that meet them.

For details on USFS food storage orders, contact your local Ranger District Office, or check the website for the forest you plan to visit. For example, the Flathead National Forest has its food order posted at www.fs.fed.us/r1/flathead/wildlife/grizzly_bears_index.shtml .

Products used on public lands must be certified by the IGBC as bear-resistant.   Products that have been certified and approved for use on public lands to meet food storage regulations are listed on the IGBC web site at: http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/wildlife/igbc/ .

Products tested for use on private land and that may not fully meet the USFS guidelines on public lands are listed on the Living With Wildlife Foundation web site at www.lwwf.org .

For a complete guide to living in bear country, go to the FWP web site at fwp.mt.gov and click on Be Bear Aware under Conservation.