City Club Missoula – With bears at stake, ticket offenders: Enforce city ordinance

It is probably safe to say that bear awareness in Missoula has been achieved. At this point, everyone should know that a fed bear is a dead bear – and yet too many people are still leaving their garbage outdoors, their fruit trees unpicked, and their pet food within reach of bears. And the bears are the ones paying for it.

Last week’s euthanization of a black bear that had repeatedly raided garbage cans in the Rattlesnake area was entirely avoidable, if only residents had been more careful about keeping their garbage inaccessible to bears. It was the third bear to be put down for getting too close for comfort to Missoula residents this season, and unfortunately, it was only one of six bears in the Rattlesnake that are presumably still on the hunt for garbage, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Clearly, it is time to follow up our bear-education efforts with enforcement of the city ordinance we have in place to keep bears away from humans – and in doing so, help keep both bears and people safe.

During Monday’s City Club Missoula http://www.cityclubmissoula.org meeting, University of Montana wildlife biology graduate student Jerod Merkle reported that increases in bear activity near town coincide with apple season. Consequently, fruit-picking programs that get under way in early September or earlier might help remove at least one of the attractants for bears.

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_b482a262-d891-11df-914a-001cc4c03286.html