MISSOULA — All residents in Missoula's "bear buffer zone" are now required to store their trash in bear-resistant containers under the joint city-county Bear Smart program, which is in its final phase of implementation.
The bear buffer zone is defined by the city and county as the area prone to more human-bear interaction. The goal of the requirement is to reduce bear interactions.
"Garbage is the number one conflict source for bears and so that's the one we tried to address first," Erin Edge said.
Edge is a senior representative for Defenders of Wildlife. She said the program has been a success so far.
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"We know for sure that the bear-resistant garbage cans caused lower bear conflicts," Edge said.
Valerie Hedquist lives up O Brien Creek Road west of Missoula and said she knows that personally. She is well aware she lives in bear country.
"We live in a beautiful place. And because we share it with animals, we should do everything we can to make sure that those animals live safely with us," Hedquist said.
Here is a map of the bear buffer zone:
Hedquist said small steps make a difference.
"And one of the small things we can do is to make sure that we have this bear-proof canister," Hedquist said.
She says that before the cans were implemented, there was an issue with trash pickup timing.
"The trash pickup would be very early on a Monday morning, like at 5 a.m., which meant that most people would put their trash out in the evening, which was a problem because, of course, the bears soon found out that the trash was out on the street, ready for them to eat on Sunday evening," Hedquist said.
She also says that while the containers may work, they have to be used properly.
"You make sure that it's closed, so you always have to make sure that it's still not overfilled," Hedquist said.
Residents in need of a container can contact their garbage hauler — either Grizzly Disposal or Republic Services — to have one dropped off. More than 12,000 new customers will need containers, so there may be a slight delay.
