MISSOULA - The bears are bustling, back scratching and bouncing around up in the mountains, but Missoula is quiet.
"We've had up to 40 bears just in the Rattlesnake on a bad year. This year, we only have one," said Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Bear Management Specialist James Jonkel.
We went out with Jonkel, one of the most notable bear experts in Montana, to check out some trash enclosures around the Rattlesnake — an area known for bear activity.
Watch to learn more about the efforts to keep bears at bay in Missoula:
FWP has been steadily encouraging residents more and more to use trash enclosures rather than traditional bear-resistant trash cans or dumpsters.
"You're lucky if you can get three or four years out of a dumpster before it breaks," Jonkel said. "And, it's not necessarily the bears breaking it. It's the trucks, the equipment."
Roughly 100 trash enclosures have been built around Missoula, and 25 to 30 are situated in the county itself.
"After years of getting easy garbage, when they come across an enclosure or a chain link fence retrofitted with some hot-wire along the top, they’re going to try and get to the garbage," Jonkel said. " But if they don’t get a food reward, they’ll move on. Sometimes, to the neighbor's house, who maybe hasn't had bear problems but doesn’t have an enclosure up or a bear-resistant can, then I get to meet that neighbor."
Durability varies, but the strategy remains the same — make it harder for bears to access unnatural food sources.
"It's been a really good year, very quiet for bears, and that's mostly because of all the good work that people are doing," Jonkel said. "But also, we've had an excellent food year. Tons of berries, tons of other natural foods."
The Rattlesnake isn’t the only area where enclosures are coming in handy; just down the mountain on the University of Montana’s campus, Bear Smart UM is rolling out a bunch of them.
UM sustainability director and head of Bear Smart, Eva Rocke, took us around a couple of new ones the program has replaced.
"We're working our way around all of the trash cans that are outside," Rocke said. "We've invested in models like this [bear-resistant can] that are like 1,300 bucks a pop, and we still have 12 of these over in Facility Services that we're looking to deploy across campus."
Campus is just the start as the program plans on installing more enclosures in the University Villages.
"We're seeking some funding right now, that we should know about by the end of the calendar year — that would enclose a bunch of the dumpsters at the South Campus apartments that the University owns," Rocke said.
With the campus playing its part, Jonkel hopes the community follows suit and does the same.
"Really, you should be keeping your garbage contained spring, summer, and fall," Jonkel said. "You should have bird feeders down spring, summer and fall. Just doing your due diligence when you don't have bears around because you never know when one is going to come by, and you don't want to train up a new bear."
For enclosure blueprints or more information about the implementation of Missoula's bear buffer zone, just reach out to Jonkel at FWP. He’s got your trash talk covered.
