county passes bear & trash ordinance

On December 18, 2008, the La Plata County Board of Commissioners passed a wildlife-resistant container ordinance. This ordinance, proposed by the Living with Wildlife Advisory Board, provides county residents the option to minimize wildlife conflicts with trash by either placing trash in receptacles between the hours of 5:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. on the day of pick up or by purchasing bear-resistant trash containers.

A copy of the ordinance is available here. 

An article on the ordinance in The Durango Herald can be found here. 

bear-resistant dumpsters

Here are some photo examples of wildlife-resistant (there's really no such thing as bear-proof) dumpsters. These dumpsters have metal lids and latching mechanisms that don't allow bears access. To upgrade your dumpsters to be wildlife-resistant or to order wildlife-resistant dumpsters, contact your local waste provider. 

For an enlarged version of these photos, click here or on the photos to view in Picasa. Click on the green arrow to begin slideshow.

bad idea. bad execution.

Sometimes, a bears behavior requires that it be moved (or relocated) in some instances. Unfortunately, not all relocations of bears go as planned. (Many of you have probably seen these photos of a wildlife official being attacked during a release by an annoyed grizzly bear that was rather unceremoniously dumped from a culvert trap). 

Here is video from the Craig Kilborn Show of one such flawed effort in Missoula, MT to tranquilize and remove a bear from a tree in 2007. WARNING: not for the faint of heart. The bear ended up ok, (at least in this stage of the process), but perhaps it may have been better to just leave the bear alone to remove itself from the tree on its own.

After seeing examples such as this, I'm amazed that black bears don't haul off and whack us humans more often. They display far more tolerance then we do. 

bearsaver container brochure

BearSaver makes arguably the best residential wildlife-resistant poly cart trash container in the industry. The latching mechanism is easily unlocked with one finger through an opening in the front and the lid automatically locks when closed. They come in three models (Grizzly, Black Bear and Varmint) and three sizes, (32-gallon, 65-gallon and 95-gallon). 

Check out and download a pdf of their brochure, here.

bear-proof container testing

Here is a video of a BearBins wildlife-resistant trash container being tested using captive grizzly bears. Containers are baited with foods, latching mechanisms are smeared with attractants such as molasses and placed in with the bears to test for effectiveness, using protocols established by the Living with Wildlife Foundation. This testing is done at The Grizzly Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, MT. 

View a slideshow of wildlife-resistant container testing here:

Another testing video can be found on the BearSaver web site:

http://www.bearsaver.com/PolyCart_Video.htm

Bears are given 60-minutes to fail the containers and access food rewards and containers that withstand the onslaught are star-rated in their abilities in being bear-resistant. Containers that have passed product-testing can be viewed here. I've been told that the bears remember where containers failed in previous testing and immediately test any new design modifications, one year after the previous test.

trash hit by bears

Seems some bears haven't had enough of town yet. Trash hit out on Junction Creek Rd and dragged across the road. Not sure why this needs to be said, but bear-resistant dumpsters aren't very effective if the lids aren't shut. 

a few thanks

Thanks to Doug Goldsmith at WCA/Transit Waste, we now, finally, have ball caps for volunteers to wear while out helping us prevent bear issues. Thanks to Needleart for their great work on the hats! So, come help us out sometime - and in addition to the whole great karma thing, maybe, you'll even get a cool new hat out of it. Thank you Transit Waste!

Dennis Gallegos from Waste Management surprised us with a donated 90-gallon BearSaver bear-resistant trash container for use in educational purposes. These BearSaver cans are so user-friendly. Stop by our educational booth next year and we'll have it on hand for your inspection. Thank you Waste Management!