“Keep calm and carry bear spray.” That is a primary message from Defenders of Wildlife Bear Safety Workshop hosted in conjunction with Methow Conservancy on Sept. 15.
All 25 participants were given an opportunity to face a fast-approaching bear (albeit a bear decoy on a cart being pulled by a fleet-footed human) and deploy their bear spray in time to prevent a negative encounter with a very large opponent.
One past participant called it “nerve racking in exactly the right way,” according to Defenders of Wildlife’s Communications Director, Maggie Dewane.
Kristin Botzel, wildlife biologist with the organization’s Washington team, gave the educational presentation preceding the hands-on exercise. The goal of the workshop is to teach community members how to stay safe on the trail, in camp, or — as is frequently the case here in the Methow — in your own backyard.
Participants learned how to fend off an advancing “bear” at a safety workshop offered by Defenders of Wildlife.
There are “beary smart solutions” (a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife phrase) to help keep bears away from your domicile. “Think like a bear,” WDFW says.
With a very large olfactory bulb allowing for an incredible sense of smell, anything that emits an attractive odor can attract a bear from miles away. Combined with an excellent memory, once bears have found food around a home, they will come back in hopes of finding more.
Creative bears learn how to open car doors if a food source is smelled inside. They have been known to open house doors, especially lever door handles. More than one Mazama homeowner has discovered a bear in an open garage searching for anything edible. One bear found his way into a home where he was gorging on dog food.
A video in Botzel’s presentation showed an acrobatic bear’s endeavor to reach a bird feeder that had been hung from a line strung between two trees. The bear inched its way along the wire, barely holding on and batting at the feeder with its hind feet before he lost his grip and fell to the ground.
Considering that the food nature provides is light on calories, a bear storing up for winter (especially during this time of year when they are experiencing hyperphagia — insatiable hunger) might prefer the 2,585 calories a birdfeeder with one pound of black oil sunflower seeds over one pound of huckleberries with a meager 166 calories.
Garbage bins, chicken coops, and beehives seem to be most alluring to local bears.
“Everyone likes chicken,” Botzel said. “Bears included.”
A 10-frame beehive developing bees and honey can provide 68,672 calories to a hungry bear. (Winnie the Pooh wasn’t all wrong feasting on his “Hunny Pot.”)
Fortunately, Methow Bear Coalition is a partnership of organizations that offers a variety of programs to support human-bear coexistence in the Methow Valley. See methowbearcoalition.org for more information.
Bear-resistant electric fencing can deter bears from chicken coops, beehives, fruit trees, compost piles and other attractants. A portion of the cost can be reimbursed through Defenders of Wildlife-led cost-share program.
Bear-resistant community dumpsters replacing individual garbage bins can prevent bears from accessing trash. A mama bear with two cubs prompted such a change on our lane here in Mazama after sheds were torn into, trash put out for pickup was strewn down the highway, and bird feeders were trashed.
One of the most significant takeaways from the workshop for me was the amount of information that is available for being Bear Wise while living in bear country. Bearwise.org is a website chockfull of important information about identifying bears, identifying a bear’s behavior and how to respond depending on the behavior, the hazards of a dog and bear encounter, invaluable tips when recreating in bear backcountry, and much more.
