Bears and garbage just shouldn't mix.

With an ever-decreasing natural habitat created by ongoing development, bears are being forced more and more into encounters with humans in many areas of the country.

The bears see trash containers as an easy and quick meal. And they will return again and again if garbage is readily accessible.

But as bears become more familiar with their surroundings, they can also become more aggressive, leading to a whole other set of problems.

"A lot of times, if the bears get to be that much of a problem, they remove them by euthanization," said Steve Thompson, director of marketing and sales with a company called BearSaver.

BearSaver, of Ontario, Calif., is one of several companies around the country that make bear-resistant garbage containers and enclosures.

The company recently was at a grizzly bear preserve in West Yellowstone, Mont., to have its steel-reinforced poly carts tested by the Living with Wildlife Foundation. The nonprofit group, dedicated to helping people and wildlife coexist, runs a testing program to determine whether a company can call its products bear-resistant.

"Mainly it's black bears, but there's grizzlies too in certain areas," Thompson said. "They get into the trash and make a big mess."

Bear-resistant containers can keep the bulky animals away from trash and discourage them from returning to civilization.

"It gets them out of the neighborhood. They don't get shot," Thompson said. "As people move out to the bears´ habitat, there's going to be a lot more interaction. It's a growing issue to the point where a lot of municipalities are making it a city ordinance to have bear-proof containers."

New Jersey is one area of the country that has seeing the growing intersection between bears and humans.

"Bears are getting a lot of attention lately for the wrong reason," said Bradley Campbell, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection. "They're venturing too close to homes and campsites looking for food. It's not because they're hungry. Bears find plenty of food in the wild. It's because they've learned bad habits from people, people who feed them intentionally or unintentionally by leaving out food or garbage."

It's illegal to feed bears in New Jersey, and people can be fined $1,000 for the offense.

In the Lake Tahoe area, on the border of Nevada and California, the combination of black bears and humans has created the need for intervention.

Ann Bryant, founder of a nonprofit organization called the BEAR League, said her group has been able to convince four counties surrounding the lake to require bear-resistant trash containers. The group works to keep bears safe and in their natural habitat.

Folks get one warning if a bear gets into their garbage. A second time triggers an automatic requirement to buy bear-resistant trash protection, Bryant said.

"The most important thing they can do is be responsible with their garbage and to understand the nature of this animal if they are going to live in bear habitat," she said.

Bryant said she believes the bear population in her area is stable or declining, but bears are being attracted to neighborhoods more and more from outlying rural areas.

"The bears are catching on to the fact that where there's people, there's garbage," she said.

"We definitely have more and more situations with humans moving into bear habitat. As some of these areas become more developed, people come in with trash," Bryant said.

Bear essentials; A growing number of towns require bear-proof trash containers.(habitat protection)
Contact Waste News senior reporter Jim Johnson at (937) 964-1289 or jpjohnson@crain.com