No thanks. I already ate.: durango community bear meeting

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

durango community bear meeting

The inaugural meeting of the Bear & Trash Working Group will take place in early January. This working group brings together community leaders and stakeholders for discussion on city bear and trash policies with the goal of making recommendations for moving forward with clear, meaningful and workable solutions to reduce bear-human conflicts in the community. Special thanks to KSUT's Beth Warren for moderating this vital community discussion.

This meeting is open to the public, but the Working Group will be limited.

Bear & Trash Working Group

Tues. Jan. 12, 2010

5:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Durango Public Library / Program Room 2

Topics to include:

• Overview of current city bear and trash policy

• Overview of standard community wildlife-protection ordinances

• Review of proposed city code revisions in dealing with bears and trash

• Likely challenges in implementing bear and trash policies

Contact Bryan Peterson at bp@frontier.net for more information or a list of possible attendees.

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how you can help

Most importantly is to remove any attractants from your property that will lure bears, which creates "problem" bears in the first place. Remove the food source and you remove the bear. Here are a few other ways you can contribute:

• Be a good neighbor, by talking to them, and notifying them on how to not attract bears to your neighborhood.

• Make bird feeders inaccessible on first sign of bears being in your area. All it takes is once, and bears easily recall this valuable, high-caloric food reward (a seven pound tube of black oil birdseed contains 12,000 calories).

• If you have fruit trees and actually use the fruit and dont want damage to limbs, get all fruit off the tree, shake the fruit off if necessary and pick before fruit is ripe. Remove any and all fallen fruit from the ground.

• Report bear sightings.

• Notify your elected officials when you are experiencing bear issues. Or write a letter to the editor. People that draft policy don't address something they never hear about.

• Get a wildlife-resistant trash container for your home. If you have a dumpster, talk to your waste provider about upgrading or modifying with metal lids and latches to make it wildlife-proof.

• If you live in the county, consider electric fencing to protect things of value from damage, injury or death from bears.

• Feel free to help out financially. We accept contributions year-round, not just during bear season.

• Volunteer some time during bear season.

Please allow bears to remain wild bears.