RED LODGE — Red Lodge took a significant step this fall toward reducing the conflict between its residents and black bears. During August and September, the city’s garbage-disposal contractor replaced most residential garbage cans with bear-proof containers.
For years, mischievous black bears have appeared occasionally in the yards and back alleys of Red Lodge, rummaging through garbage cans and raiding pet food bowls, bird feeders and fruit trees. The town borders the Beartooth Mountain Range and Custer National Forest, which provide excellent backcountry habitat for bears. But some bears find it easier to forage on scraps from town than on berries, bugs, carrion and other wild bear food.
Biologists, game wardens and Red Lodge officials have worked to make the town less enticing for bears, including educating residents to remove bird feeders, clean barbecue grills, leave pet food indoors and pick up fallen apples. But garbage remained a problem until recently.
Forrest Sanderson, the Red Lodge community development director, said city officials and wildlife professionals all recognized that garbage cans were attracting bears. So, when the town’s contract with Allied Waste came up for renewal this year, they decided to include bear-resistant residential garbage cans in the new agreement.
In late August and September, Allied Waste started replacing the city’s 1,200 single-family roll-out garbage cans with bear-resistant containers. The 32-gallon and 96-gallon trash containers are similar to the old garbage cans, but the have a latch to keep the lid closed. The latch is easy for people to operate, but bears cannot figure it out, Sanderson said.
So far, 1,100 of the new trash cans have been set out, Sanderson said. The remaining 100 will go to seasonal residents who have left for the winter. They will be put to use next spring as summer residents return.
The $270,000 cost of the containers is part of Allied Waste’s five-year contract with Red Lodge, Sanderson said. While residential solid waste rates went up with the new contract, most of the blame goes to higher operating costs and the fact that the town has not had a price increase in six years, he said.
The bear-resistant cans went only to single-family homes, Sanderson said. Multiplex apartments and businesses still dispose of their waste in traditional bins. Red Lodge will continue to work with them to take personal responsibility for their garbage and limit litter that attracts bears.
Meanwhile, Sanderson said he already has seen an improvement in residential alleys. The new containers coincided with an excellent chokecherry and berry crop this fall, which helped the bears “make an honest living” eating natural foods in the forests. And the new containers have made bears less likely to rummage through trash cans in town.
Garbage in the alleys is drastically reduced this fall, Sanderson said. Even when the cans are knocked over, they do not spill.
Shawn Stewart of Red Lodge, the Fish, Wildlife and Parks regional wildlife biologist, said black bears hibernate for the winter only after they are “physiologically ready.” Though deep, wet snow covered the region two weeks ago, Stewart said, the bears were not ready to den for the winter. That happens only after they go without food for a while.
With less residential garbage within easy reach, Stewart said, bears will change to their hibernation physiology on a more natural timeline. Black bears in the Red Lodge area could start crawling into dens during the first week in November with adult males following sometime later.
Some bears accustomed to the garbage-pail “gravy train” emerge from hibernation as early as the first week of March, before natural food is available, Stewart said. If residential garbage is not available, they may learn to stay in their dens longer in the spring.
Sanderson and the new city leadership in Red Lodge deserve credit for taking this first important step toward reducing human/bear conflicts, Stewart said.
-FWP-
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