From Carson City to Lake Tahoe, hungry bears in search of holiday barbecues
Submitted by editor on Fri, 05/28/2010 - 3:09pm
It's a holiday weekend with lots of folks heading to campgrounds throughout the region. And where there's campers, there's bound to be bears.
Carson City and Lake Tahoe have experienced an active spring, including one bear breaking into a Carson City garage. The bear was taken down.
Campgrounds have become regular food sources for bears who are habituated and conditioned to forage in the area, according to the Forest Service. In other words, the buckets of fried chicken, steaks, hamburgers and hot dogs you put on the camp grill, and the trash collected afterward lure the bears.
In some camp areas around Carson City, Lake Tahoe and throughout the Eastern Sierra, where bear activity is high, visitors can use bear-proof containers designed to prevent access by bears and other forest animals. These can be found at camp sites or can be rented. Containers can be obtained at the Carson Ranger District's Carson City office. Call (775) 882-2766 or click here to go to the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest website that features bear-food storage options.
For practical purposes, the Forest Service advises the following:
— When bear-proof storage containers are available, please use them. Food should be sealed in airtight containers.
— In vehicles without trunks, all food and related supplies must be stored out of sight.
— Cover your food completely to hide it from a bears view.
— Clean the inside of your vehicle and remove any open drink containers and food (including food wrappers).
— Consider removing your child’s car seat since they often have food spills and smell associated with them.
— Never leave food in your campsite unattended.
— Don’t leave food or ice chests on your picnic table or in your tent. Dispose of all garbage properly.
— Keep a clean camp. Clean your campsite after each meal.
Whether you're cooking up a tangy barbecue burger or ribs on the grill or hiking the lower-elevation nature trails, the possibility exist that you may run into bears or the curious bruins may run into you.
Click here to learn what to do if you and a bear share the same path.
Bear Break-in Terms found at www.sierrawild.gov
— “Car Crunch”: broken window glass, bent door frames, popped camper shells… all to reach that apple core you left under the passenger’s seat.
— “Trunk Trick”: an add-on to the basic “Car Crunch,” after breaking a window the bear rips out your back seat to reach that toothpaste you left in the trunk.
— “Cat Burglar”: It’s not just cars – leave the window or door open on your cabin or hotel room and a bear will happily rip through the screen to find that granola bar in your luggage.
— “Dinner Guest”: Now that steel bear lockers are common throughout the Sierra, some habituated bears resort to walking right into campsites during mealtime to grab food directly from picnic tables, open vehicles, and yes – open bear boxes!
— “Tarzan”: In the backcountry, bears can climb to limbs above a suspended food bag and jump onto food, dislodging food bags en route to the ground. No really, they do. It’s crazy.
— “Scissor Teeth”: In the backcountry, some bears gnaw through ropes or limbs to drop food bags to the ground.
— “Oscar the Grouch”: Some bears learn to claw open trash can or dumpster lids to pull trash out or crawl inside; others slide down trash chutes, sometimes getting stuck inside dumpsters and collected with the trash, compacted by trash truck machinery, or injured when escaping the collection truck. (Help prevent this by always latching the lid on dumpsters and trash cans.)
— “Aquaman”: At least one bear in the Sierra is known to swim to reach rafts where food is being stored.
— “Desperate Dirt Bag”: Rock climbers suspending their food bags off the ground have lost their wall munchies to incredibly skilled free-climbing bear masters. Food hung over the lip of cliffs has been pulled up and munched by bears on the summit.
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