News
Montana Entrepreneurs finding niche in bear deterrence
More people are living and playing in bear country in the West, and some entrepreneurs are turning a profit by keeping the two safely apart.
By BECKY BOHRER – Associated Press Writer
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2004/02/09/business/e01020804_03.txt
‘‘Bears. That’s our livelihood,” said Pride Johnson, president of Counter Assault, http://www.counterassault.com/ a Kalispell-based company that specializes in bear products. Its top product is an industrial-size canister that can shoot a very unpleasant but nonlethal pepper spray 30 feet, to discourage approaching bears — or stop charging ones.
It’s a growing niche business, he and others say, spurred by the increasing number of people in bear country and tighter regulations for storing food in the backcountry.
‘‘People are looking at stronger, lighter ways to store food and there’s also new work on electric fences,” said Jim Claar, carnivore program leader with the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Region in Missoula. ‘‘It’s a good trend.”
Though best known for its bear pepper spray, which sells for about $38 a can, Johnson said Counter Assault has also branched out in response to other demands — recently, for example, with its Bear Keg.
The backpack-sized food container — bright yellow and tailored to enthusiasts apt to spend days in the wild — weighs 3.1 pounds and has a lid with latches that can be opened using keys or coins. It is intended to keep human food away from bears, and thus discouraging them from thinking of people as a food source.
Johnson expects Bear Keg, which sells for about $80, to make up maybe 5 percent of his total business the first year and grow after that.
But getting a bear-resistant product to market takes time — and Johnson is among those to learn it firsthand.
Development of the Bear Keg, which took about 1½ years, included testing at the Forest Service Missoula Technology & Development Center, where it was subject to tests meant to simulate a grizzly’s efforts to open the container.
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http://www.counterassault.com/
Counter Assault
120 Industrial Court
Kalispell, Montana 59901
(406) 257-4740 Fax (406) 257-6674
(800) 695-3394
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The testing program was authorized by a panel of government experts called the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. If a product passes the rigorous testing, it meets Forest Service food storage requirements and can be certified bear-resistant for use in grizzly habitat in the lower 48 states, said Bob Summerfield, Forest Service national grizzly bear habitat coordinator in Missoula.
In December, the committee gave support to another testing program that, among other things, uses captive bears from the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Mont., to give products a real-life workout.
UnBearAble Bins Inc., which has offices in Canada and Montana, had its 95-gallon, plastic trash bins tested at the center. Derek Reich, a partner in the business, said he was pleased with the results.
‘‘You could see where there were toothmarks — but there were no holes — and where they ripped off wheels,” he said. ‘‘But it was totally functional.”
Reich said that if more people used bear-resistant products, many conflicts with bears could be avoided.
Wildlife managers agree. But they say education of outdoor enthusiasts and homeowners nestled in wilder areas is also crucial in the overall effort of bear management. People leaving out trash or other food can end with bears being killed by wildlife authorities who consider them a problem or danger.
‘‘Everyone wants to own their share of the Big Sky. But there’s an inherent responsibility that goes along with that,” said Jim Williams, a regional wildlife manager for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
On the Net:
Counter Assault: http://www.counterassault.com/
UnBearAble Bins: http://www.unbearablebins.com/
Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee: http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/wildlife/igbc/
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Center uses bears to help test products, teach lessons
Associated Press
WEST YELLOWSTONE – At first, it seems an unfair fight: On one side, a metal container smeared with peanut butter and harboring a tasty treat inside. On the other, Sam, a hulking, 950-pound grizzly from Alaska, who knows the treat is inside and wants it.
But the trash container passes the test. For an hour, Sam pounces, claws, bites and whacks – but never gets the treat.
It is a demonstration of the product-testing work done at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center.
The testing is just one aspect of the center, a small preserve near Yellowstone National Park for bears like Sam that likely would have been killed if left in the wild, general curator John Heine said.
The center’s 10 bears include orphans and bears that were getting into enough trouble with people that they either had to be destroyed or relocated.
One of the inhabitants is a grizzly known as No. 101 and her two cubs, which had been living in the greater Yellowstone area. In 2002, when drought took a toll on available food in the wild, they began feeding on garbage and pet food. The "plethora of food possibilities," was too much temptation, Heine said.
Now at the center, the sow still charges, he said. "After living in the wild for 20 years, No. 101 is not that mellow."
Sam and his sister, Illie, coastal grizzlies, hung around developed areas in Alaska as young orphans. Eventually people started feeding them and they had to be removed from the wild and placed in the center. Bears fed by people lose their fear of humans and pose a serious hazard.
At the center, bears live in small groups in an outdoor habitat, separated from tourists by fences.
While many visitors come just to see the bears, officials say the animals are more than just captive attractions. They are used to teach tourists about how to behave in the backcountry if they encounter a bear – or how to avoid an unwanted encounter in the first place. Tourists also hear talks on wildlife and nature. Noninvasive research – such as looking at what scents bears find appealing – is done, too.
And then there is product testing.
Heine estimates that about a dozen products are tested every year at the center to see if they can withstand the bears’ efforts. Getting a product ready for testing – so that the bears want to break it open – includes adding enticements like peanut butter near latches or handles and inside, Heine said.
The bears have learned that if they can get into a container, they’ll get a tasty reward, said lead keeper Libby Scott.
Bears are usually allowed to spend up to 45 minutes with a product – if they need that long – "to make sure the effort is there," he said. "Effort would be, do they bite, claw or stand on it?"
Bears, Scott said, are smart: They’ll remember places where they’ve gotten food in the past. That’s what makes this kind of program important, she said. If they can’t get into garbage cans or other containers for food in campgrounds or subdivisions, she and other officials say, they’re apt to move on.
Copyright © 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
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