When bears wake up in Greater Yellowstone, we know spring is on its way. It’s like hearing the call of the first sandhill crane or finding the first wildflower – a sign we made it through another long winter. 

We likely haven’t experienced the last big winter storm, and we probably haven’t thought about bringing our bear spray on an adventure in months, but it’s time to remember what it means to live in or visit bear country. 

While it’s an incredible experience to see a bear – from a safe distance – bear encounters can be dangerous, and we don’t want to encourage bears to hang around humans. 

But once bears have a taste for easily accessible, high-calorie food like garbage, bird seed, compost, and other attractants, they become habituated. You may have heard the phrase, “a fed bear is a dead bear.” Every year, bears are lethally removed from the landscape for human safety after becoming habituated. 

Luckily, there are many things we can do to keep bears wild and alive, and ourselves safe.  

• Get a bear-resistant trash can! If you live in bear country, contact your local garbage hauler to see if they have these cans available. Keeping your trash inside until the morning of trash pickup is another great option. 

• Secure food and attractants when camping. Always secure your food in bear-resistant containers or bear hangs where appropriate. 

• Take down bird feeders between April and November and replace them with a bird bath.  

• Clean your grill after each use.  

• Use electric fencing to keep bears out of compost, chickens, and fruit trees.  

This month, GYC celebrated the return of bears with a project to keep bears alive and people safe in Montana and hosted a film screening about grizzly bears in Idaho. We also have an upcoming event in Bozeman on May 2 that we hope you’ll attend. Read more below! 

In early April, GYC delivered 39 bear-proof containers to the Madison Ranger District of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest as part of a partnership to keep people safe and bears wild. 

As grizzly bear populations make a remarkable comeback and expand back into forests like the Beaverhead-Deerlodge, and more people than ever are living and recreating in bear country, it’s critical to store food and other bear-enticing items like toiletries, dog food, and trash in bear-proof containers. When used properly, these containers reduce human-bear conflicts and keep bears from becoming habituated.   

The containers will be installed at Forest Service campgrounds later this spring. 

This partnership is ongoing, and GYC and the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest plan to purchase a total of 131 bear-proof containers for campgrounds in the coming years. GYC has helped secure more than 160 Forest Service campgrounds with the installation of almost 1,200 bear-proof containers across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s five national forests. 

About 140 people joined GYC in Victor, Idaho for a sold-out screening of the film On Grizzly Ground and a panel discussion. 

On Grizzly Ground features Kris Millgate’s journey to document the remarkable Greater Yellowstone grizzly bear. The short film explores the expansion of bears in recent years and how people are both their greatest threat and greatest opportunity for long-term conservation. 

Filmmaker Kris Millgate moderated the panel discussion featuring speakers Kathy Rinaldi, deputy director of conservation at GYC, Curtis Hendricks, a biologist from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and Bill Davis, the Island Park District Ranger for the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. 

On Thursday, May 2, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition will be participating in Give Big Fest at Ferguson Farms in Bozeman! Come meet our staff and ask questions about our work – including what we’re doing to keep bears alive and people safe from 5 to 8 p.m. Learn more about the event here.

See how fast you can open a bear-resistant trash can, win a prize, and collect some GYC swag. We hope to see you there! 

—London Bernier, Communications Associate (Bozeman, Montana)

Photo Credits: 1 - NPS/Adams; 2 - NPS/Herbert; 3 - GYC/Allison Michalski; 4 - GYC/Blakeley Adkins