Fruit gleaning for West Yellowstone bears upcoming

Swan Valley Bear Resources and Bear Aware Bigfork will coordinate a fruit gleaning week at Wayfarers State Park Sept. 16-20 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.  

Gleaning involves clearing leftover fruit to prevent human-bear conflicts. It has historically been a community effort in Flathead Valley and benefits those who cannot pick their fruit trees and food banks in need of fresh fruit. In this case, however, it will go to the bears at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone.  

People are invited to drop their fruit at the Wayfarers site during designated times. Throughout the week, BAB members will haul the collected fruit to the Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Kalispell. Then SVBR will truck the cumulation to West Yellowstone to feed the bears.  

“Several of the Grizzly and Wolf Center's captive bears were wild bears from the Flathead and Swan Valley areas who were pulled from the wild due to repeated human-bear conflicts,” Swan Valley Connections conservation associate Jackie Pagano said, “so it is a nice full-circle moment to have community members donate their unwanted fruit to these captive animals to prevent potential bear conflicts with wild bears in our areas.”

Those looking for help picking their fruit can visit the Flathead Fruit Gleaning page at https://www.facebook.com/