Don’t Feed the Bears!
Gallatin National Forest to Implement “Food Storage Order”
By Danielle Blank, Walter Intern, Yellowstone Field Office
Yellowstone National Park’s iconic wildlife depends on more than just their habitat within park borders. At various times throughout the year, bear, bison, elk, deer, and pronghorn (among others) may leave the park to find adequate forage. While Yellowstone has been a model in reducing human-wildlife confl icts, management on adjacent lands has lagged.
Adverse interactions with humans are the primary reason grizzly bears die in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Fortunately, the national parks next to the park are proactively addressing this issue. There are now food storage regulations on public lands throughout the GYE. In the spring of 2007, Gallatin National Forest (GNF) will roll out an expanded Food Storage Order (FSO). This order will require all GNF users to properly hang unattended food (as well as other scented items) or to store it in certified bear-resistant containers.
This effort is not only focused on bears. Whenever a wild animal learns to associate humans with food, it becomes a nuisance at best and a serious threat at worst. People who improperly store food around wildlife put themselves in danger, and endanger future visitors. In addition to the danger that habituated animals pose to humans, these behaviors also put wildlife at increased risk. Wildlife are not only attracted by human food, they are drawn to scented hygiene products, livestock feed, and of course, game animal carcasses. The FSO is expected to substantially reduce the potential of dangerous human-wildlife interactions.
As part of our commitment to promoting healthy wildlife populations in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, NPCA has joined the Gallatin National Forest and a team of other organizations working on a plan to educate forest users about the new regulations and how to comply with them.
To learn more about the expanded FSO, visit the Gallatin National Forest website at www.fs.fed.us/r1/gallatin or call Ron Archuleta at (406) 823-6072; Marna Daley at (406) 587- 6703; or Lisa Stoeffler at (406) 587-6705.
