Bear Aware: Expectations and education- dispersed site camping

Many visitors who camp and recreate across the region often utilize dispersed campsites. Unlike developed sites with amenities such as staffed concessionaire’s, dispersed sites lack these improvements.

Visitors who use dispersed campsites have some expectation of a clean recreation area, free of half-eaten apples, cigarette butts, and used toilet paper. However, without hard working staff and volunteers cleaning these sites and educating visitors, garbage would accumulate at an alarming rate.

We have filled buckets, bags, and vehicles when checking on dispersed campsites. What have we found? Way too much unburied toilet paper, cigarette butts, bottles, cans, lids, eggshells, bones, fruit peelings, cores and rinds, corn cobs, half burned books, spent shotgun shells and casings, fishing line, lures, and flies.

We have also hauled away broken lawn chairs, soiled diapers, dirty bedding, broken coolers, carpeting, grocery wrappers, egg cartons, and discarded clothing.

We are rarely surprised by what we find. People tend to “hide” or stash their trash in vault toilets and bear boxes, which is arguably better than leaving attractants exposed to wildlife, but “Pack it in, Pack it out” doesn’t mean leaving trash in an outhouse or bear box! It means take your trash home and dispose of it with your home garbage service.

And that brings us to education.

The Flathead National Forest has a Food Storage Order in place that requires all visitors to store food and attractants properly (including trash and coolers) so that wildlife cannot, or will not, have access to food attractants on public lands.

People are in violation of the Food Storage Order when they don’t store their food and other wildlife attractants (such as dog food or grain) properly when camping. They also are in violation when they leave such attractants at a site, failing to clean their campsites before they go recreate for the day.

“Leave No Trace” is a camping motto used in education for many years. Backcountry campers are taught to leave the forests as natural as possible. Before leaving your camp spot, look around. Are you leaving it better than you found it?

Some of the trash and food we find has been left in fire rings. While some people think these are okay to leave, they are not, for a few reasons.

One, it is unsightly. Wouldn’t you rather come to a camp site that looks like you are the only one who has been there? Two: Food scraps in fire rings are a potential attractant for wildlife, particularly bears.

Things like food waste (fruit peels, eggshells, bones) typically don’t burn and make for a less than clean camp for future visitors. They have an odor and could entice bears and other wildlife to that site. Bones in fire pits could be dangerous for dogs, the same goes for corn cobs. If a dog ingests bones or corn cobs it could cause distress and illness and sometimes even surgery to remove the foreign object.

As for wildlife attractants and bears, the person who leaves the food in a camp or fire pit, or even tosses food off the trail while hiking might not see the wildlife, but the person coming afterwards might, creating a potential conflict. Animals could seek campsites or trails for discarded goodies because they have found them there in the past. A bear or other wildlife could become habituated or food conditioned, leading to the potential for negative human-bear conflicts.

On many occasions when cleaning sites, we come to a camp spot that is being used, yet unattended. Left behind are coolers and condiments, dish soap, eating and cooking utensils on picnic tables, and pet food. Not long ago we came upon an empty but inhabited camp spot and left behind were a frying pan full of bacon grease, all types of condiments on the table, uncontained garbage, beverages, a cooler of food items, and a plethora of used dishes.

The Food Storage Orders are in place to keep people and wildlife safe on public lands. Unless you have a bear-resistant model, coolers should be left inside your vehicle. Never store cooler or toiletries in your tent. Nothing should be left on your picnic table. Bears are smart and curious. They remember where they have received a food reward in the past. Toothpaste has an odor; they will investigate literally anything with an odor.

Many of our dispersed sites have a bulletin board or signage. Read these signs! They often have good reminders about the wild animals who inhabit the forests and wetlands of the area.

Most of us who live and visit here value our clean water and wildlife. By continuing to educate ourselves and others about clean camping and food storage, we can all do our part to keep the area the beautiful wonder that it is.

Some useful camping ideas:

Bring more trash bags than you think you need while camping. These come in handy for other things besides trash. Double wrapping garbage helps reduce odor when you haul your trash home.

Huckleberries!!!! Bears get many of their much-needed calories from berries. If you are out berry picking remember to be aware of your surroundings, make noise frequently, look for bear sign, and go somewhere else if you see fresh bear activity. Always carry bear spray and know how to use it. We carry inert cans of spray to demonstrate use.

“It’s biodegradable,” they said. “It will be fine,” they said. Nope! While food scraps like apple cores, orange, and banana peels may be biodegradable, it is still important to pack it all out with you. Leaving trash tossed to the trailside or tossed into the woods can cause animals to become dependent on human food.

Please remember we share these public lands. Carry your bear spray, know how and when to use it. Leave the camp spot better than you found it.