Nearly 450 BearSaver containers will arrive in Homer next week, thanks to the efforts of the Kachemak Bay Conservation Society and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game which secured a grant to buy the containers in bulk.
The containers can be purchased for $50 during a grand opening sale on May 17 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Lloyd Moore's Quick Sanitation office, located about one-half mile north of the Kenai Peninsula Borough landfill on the Sterling Highway.
The containers come in three sizes 32, 68, and 95 gallons and the $50 price tag is considerably less than if purchased any other way. This offer is limited to households in the 99603 zip code, and there is a limit of one per household. At 10 a.m. Saturday, the society also is hosting a short ceremony explaining the importance of mitigating bear/human conflicts with three Homer folks Derek Stonorov, Nancy Lord and Gary Lyon who were involved in writing "Living in Harmony with Bears."
That guide was mailed to every household in the 99603 area code in April.
Besides delving into bear facts and bear communication, "Living in Harmony with Bears" gives safety tips for those traveling in bear country and tips on keeping human food away from bears.
Food-conditioned bears can be aggressive, Stonorov said.
"A person who allows bears to feed on improperly stored food or garbage may well be putting other people at risk," he said.
Stonorov recommends cooperating with your neighbors to encourage others to manage garbage, dog food, bird seed and anything that might attract a bear.
"For the whole thing to be effective, it has to be 100 percent," he said. If there is just one person on a street not handling garbage properly, it affects the whole neighborhood, he said.
Keeping garbage secured until just before pickup is a good way to thwart scavenging bears and using bear-proof containers at home and in the backcountry works well.
Another potential problem area for home owners is chicken coops and other animal feed.
In those situations, electric fences have been found to be an effective method to keep bears away.
Just last week in Kenai, a man was mauled by a brown bear just after leaving his house for a jog near Dori-Lynn Street off Strawberry Road.
According to the wildlife technician who investigated the mauling for the Division of Wildlife Conservation, Larry Lewis, improperly stored garbage played a role.
Lewis said he found several large buckets of garbage on the victim's porch, about 150 yards from where the mauling occurred. Bits of food were stuck to the door of the house where a bear had tried to push its way into the house about 4:30 a.m. on April 29, he said. Lewis also noted an old chicken coop in the man's yard had been crushed by a bear, and a rabbit hutch knocked over. Penned livestock is another well known attractant for bears.
Volunteers will be on hand to direct traffic, take payments, and help load containers in vehicles. There will be no deliveries. After May 17, containers can be purchased at Quick Sanitation's office/yard during business hours of 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call Kelly or Michelle at 235-8837 for more details.
Ben Stuart can be reached at ben.stuart@homernews.com.
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Homer Alaska - News -
Story last updated at
11:53 PM on
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Spring brings bears, new trash cans
By Ben Stuart
Staff writer
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