Looks like a pretty significant effort . . .
As bears begin emerging from hibernation, wildlife conflict specialists in northwest Montana are preparing for a busy spring. But they hope that by continuing to equip communities with tools to avoid conflicts, they’ll spend more time on prevention this season, and less time setting traps.
It’s a strategy that’s been paying off in recent years as bear-human conflict experts ramp up their education and outreach curriculum and push preventative measures, such as installing electric fences and investing in bear-resistant garbage containers in order to get ahead of the curve. Although a high call volume for human-bear conflicts has continued to overwhelm specialists with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP), they’ve refined their effort to target the root of the problem — unsecured food and other wildlife attractants in the wildland urban interface (WUI).
Trapping and relocating bears, they say, is a short-term solution to a persistent problem; convincing residents to lock up their grain, electrify their chicken coops and store their barbecue grills indoors, on the other hand, makes a lasting difference.