Handguns and bear spray

Wow, it’s springtime in the Flathead. Last weekend was a great spring weekend with daytime highs in the 70s and 80s, plus bright sunny skies.

But these beautiful spring days which we love, may also bring some unwanted visitors to our backyards – bears, both black bears and grizzly bears. So, it’s bear aware time. After spending several months in hibernation, when the bears sense warmer spring days, they emerge from their dens and they are hungry. Grizzlies usually hibernate about 6,000 feet, so as they emerge from their dens, their denning areas are usually still surrounded by deep snows, with no native vegetation to eat. If they denned on the west side of the Swan or Whitefish mountains, they can peer west or south and see the lush green Flathead Valley. Want to guess where they will head to get something to eat? Yep, could be our backyards.

Bear aware time means we should eliminate any attractions in our yards that might attract a bear. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has a ton of  information on how best to make your backyard less attractive to bears. All of their recommendations could be labeled as common sense. But a common problem with common sense is that it is not always common or convenient.  One of their common sense recommendations is to put your backyard barbecue in the garage at night. Barbecues usually have lots of lingering good smelling residues from your last steak or hamburger fry. Bears have fantastic noses that can detect that good barbecue smell from a long way. Do I put my barbecue away at night? Nope. None of my neighbors that I know put their barbecue’s in their garages at night. If you have bird feeders full of bird seed, they are also a bear attractant and should be put in the garage at night.