WHITEFISH - It’s that time of year when bears are hungry and out looking for food sources before the big hibernation comes this winter.
The City of Whitefish is reminding residents to properly dispose of garbage after a mother bear and her cubs have been feeding off overfilled garbage cans.
“Making sure your garbage can is properly latched, making sure it’s closed, it’s not overflowing with food attractants, that’s going to keep a bear from coming over, tipping it over, causing a mess for you and your neighbors and also learning a bad behavior,” said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Dillon Tabish.
Tabish said it’s time for everyone to do their part to help prevent bear-human conflicts. “As soon as a bear learns that it can go and get an easy food reward from your garbage can or your fruit tree or your dog food outside, it’s going to keep coming back for more.”
In 2022, the City of Whitefish required all residential properties to permanently switch to bear-resistant garbage containers. But those containers only work if garbage is filled properly.
“We want to make sure that these bears and other wildlife do not get habituated to garbage as a food source, it’s not only a risk for humans but a risk for the animal themselves, we do not want to see a momma bear and her baby bears have to be terminated just because they got into somebody’s garbage,” said Whitefish City Manager Dana Smith.
Smith said recent bear sightings in the Dakota Avenue and Skyles Place area have been linked to overfilled garbage containers. Overfilled containers are considered a violation of city ordinance, and are subject to a civil penalty of up to $300 for a first-time violation and repeat violations up to $500.
“And it’s per occurrence per day and so just because you do it once and you’re fined, doesn’t mean you’re off the hook, it is per day occurrence,” added Smith.
Tabish said bears will keep coming back to the same neighborhood if they know that food source is there.
“And that’s unfortunately when it becomes a public safety issue, it’s also really unhealthy for that animal, and so we want bears to go for natural food sources out in the wild, we don’t want them to learn that they can come near residences to get food rewards,” said Tabish.
