Official urges prevention of bear interaction

The low snow-pack and low moisture experienced during the past spring and summer has brought more bears into neighborhoods and created more contact, and conflict, between bears and humans.

Kim Annis, wildlife management specialist for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, has had a busy bear season so far this year. Annis is the agency’s bear conflict management specialist for the agency, covering 75 percent of Lincoln County and all of Sanders County. She said she takes an average of 12 calls per day about bear conflicts, but on busy days she handles more than 20 incidents.

“It’s definitely been an interesting year,” she said. “With low snow-pack and low moisture, there has been a much lower berry production, making bears range farther to find food.”

Bears, she said, generally range around 25 miles in their search for food, but this year’s food situation has prompted many to range out as far as 50 miles.

Annis’ primary job during bear season is to minimize and resolve conflicts between humans and bears. The best way to do that, she said, is for people to understand why bears come onto their property and to prevent it. The simple answer, she said, is food.

“For the past couple of years, food has been plentiful,” she said. “This year that’s not the case. Right now they’re looking for food and food is the only way to get rid of them.”

As the seasons change and bears prepare to hibernate, they become single-minded eating machines, trying to store up fat for their winter slumber. Annis said at this time of year an average bear spends 20 hours per day eating, consuming up to 20,000 calories every day. The human-bear conflicts are magnified because bears are, according to Annis, one-time learners.

“Every time they get a single scrap of food they learn,” she said. “It doesn’t have to have been last year, even. That behavior becomes ingrained. They’ve discovered a food source.”

Annis said the most, and really only, effective way for people to mitigate bear conflicts is to deny the bears access to food.

“Remove the food resource, it’s the whole reason they’re there,” she said. “If they don’t find food, they’ll move on. If they do find food, they’ll be there until it’s gone.”

Annis said part of her job is trapping and relocating bears, but prevention is the best remedy. The easiest way for people to stop bears from invading their property is to secure their garbage in bear-proof containers or to keep it inside a closed building until the night before it’s picked up.

She also recommends people harvest their fruit trees immediately. While some prefer to harvest later in the season, this year’s bear activity justifies an earlier harvest in order to encourage the bears to look elsewhere for food. Alternatively, she said electrified fencing around fruit trees can discourage bears.

Annis called out two Libby-area neighborhoods for specific attention: Woodway Park and Em Kayan Village.

The Woodway Park area, she said, has experienced a high level of bear activity this year, mainly due to the presence of unsecured garbage.

“Libby has a problem with garbage, and it’s residential garbage,” she said. “The ones around Dome Mountain Road and Parmenter, areas that butt up against the drainage. Folks need to secure their garbage if they can. I’m putting out a call to folks with the ability to secure their garbage, please do it.”

Annis said she has identified three separate family groups of bears in the Em Kayan Village area, totaling nine or 10 bears. The attractant there is fruit, she said, not garbage.

“They’re eating fruit non-stop,” she said. “The access to food is teaching bears that people mean a good food source. People need to block their fruit trees or pick the fruit. Bears will not leave until every scrap of food is gone from the area.”

Annis said the agency is committed to helping people avoid conflict with bears and is available at any time to speak with residents about bears and bear management. She said she has a number of tools at her disposal to help in this regard, although most are out in the field.

“Most of my resources are out there and in use,” she said. “Which is good, that’s why we have them.”

One resource that’s always available, though, is Annis herself, and her knowledge.

“I’m committed to helping people,” she said. “Folks can call me anytime.”

Annis can be reached at 406-293-4161 or 406-291-1320.