How to manage bears responsibly

Recent efforts to reduce bear conflicts in the Swan Valley deserve kudos, along with support from government agencies and the public.

The Swan Ecosystem Center led the way in acquiring 14 bear-resistant garbage containers for schools, lodges and restaurants in the Condon area, after a summer of significant bear conflicts.

With the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem losing 31 grizzly bears to human causes this year - the highest since 1974 - something had to be done.

And folks in Condon didn't wait around for the government to do it. They raised roughly $11,000 in just a couple of months to purchase the containers as a direct response to bears that had been Dumpster diving to a degree where they had become management problems. Three food-conditioned bears were killed as a result. There were 13 management "removals" across the ecosystem for similar reasons.

That's why government agencies need to take action. The last thing the ecosystem's bear population needs is hand-wringing statements of concern.

Fortunately, land and wildlife managers are taking action, starting with a proposal to augment the efforts that have gotten under way in Condon.

The oversight committee charged with grizzly bear recovery will be asked to pitch in money to make Condon a demonstration community for practices that discourage conflicts between bears and humans. That effort could lead to making bear-resistant garbage containers available for residents, along with beefed up educational efforts in the community.

Bears typically aren't the problem to start with. It's the open availability of attractive foods that leads bears toward conditioned, habituated behavior that leads them on a road to destruction.

Wildlife managers need to do more to address the problem through enforcement. When property owners repeatedly have bear problems as a result of attractants that are left out, they are creating problem bears that will threaten other property owners for miles around, and those bears will be doomed for management removal despite their protected status.

As long as Northern Continental Divide grizzly bears are listed under the Endangered Species Act, the government has a mission to protect and recover that population. That responsibility should be taken seriously.