Wildlife

Condon is making a big leap toward becoming a bear-resistant community in the wake of a rapid, successful fund-raiser.

The small Swan Valley community on Monday will receive a shipment of 14 bear-resistant containers that will be distributed to restaurants, lodges and schools.

"We have enough for every business to have at least one bear-resistant container," said Anne Dahl, executive director of the Swan Ecosystem Center, a nonprofit organization that launched a fund-raiser in August to purchase the containers.

In the few months since then, the center raised roughly $11,000 to purchase the containers and pay for their shipment.

Dahl said a series of late-summer grizzly bear deaths in the Swan Valley prompted the fund-raiser. Garbage containers repeatedly attracted bears to some businesses in the Condon area, and the four mortalities "just pushed us over the edge" to do something about it, Dahl said.

The Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund provided a $5,000 emergency grant, the National Wildlife Fund provided $1,000 and Defenders of Wildlife offered to pay for three containers to be located at schools.

The center got a sizable no-interest, long-term loan from a local resident and checks from $50 to $200 started coming in, Dahl said.

"All of a sudden we had about $11,000," Dahl said.

The bear-resistant metal containers have latching doors and heavy lids and have been tested by captive grizzly bears at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. The containers, which are manufactured by a Colorado correctional facility, cost $663 apiece.

Dahl said the cost of shipping individual containers was excessive, but shipping all 14 at once was more economical.

Condon may soon be a model community for bear-resistant measures. A committee of state and federal land and wildlife managers decided this week in Kalispell to pursue additional funding that would pay for residential bear-resistant containers, along with an educational program for local residents.

The committee intends to approach the Swan Ecosystem Center and other community groups for help.

The proposal was prompted out of concerns over the loss of 31 grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem this year.

That's the highest number of bear deaths since 1974.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com