Bears have a hard time resisting the temptation of food available in human trash, and a new program aims to reduce a leading cause of human/bear conflict in Teton County by providing bear-resistant trash cans to residents regardless of their ability to pay.

Drew Gath, program manager for Jackson Hole Bear Solutions, said when bears know they can eat for free, it is dangerous for residents, and frequently deadly for bears. He suggested switching out your trash can is a small price to pay for living next to wild landscapes.

"All of the people that come out to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, they're looking for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see grizzly bears, black bears and other wildlife," Gath observed. "It's really important that we keep these resources safe."

Thanks to a grant from an anonymous donor, Gath's group was able to purchase the first round of cans approved by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. The cans have passed tests with actual grizzlies on a wilderness preserve in Montana. Sign up to get your new trash can at jhbearsolutions.org.

Teton County's recently updated wildlife-feeding regulations now prohibit residents from allowing wildlife to access trash and other attractants on their property.

Gath pointed out the program can also help residents install electric fences to keep bears and other hungry wildlife away from chicken coops, compost piles and beehives.

"If a grizzly bear comes in your backyard and is attracted by a beehive, for example," Gath outlined. "If they get zapped by a properly functioning electric fence, it's really going to keep them from coming back, and keeping that neighborhood safe."

Jackson Hole Bear Solutions is looking for volunteers to help distribute cans, install electric fencing and other projects designed to make it easier for communities to coexist with wildlife. Gath added there is help available for residents to harvest fruit fallen from trees, also a major attractant.

"Another way people can get involved is by gleaning fruit off decorative crab apple and other trees in the valley. There is a local cidery that's started, called Farmstead Wyoming, and they actually glean these fruit and turn it into hard cider."

Two state agencies have teamed up to make safer wildlife migration a priority in Utah.

The Utah Wildlife Migration Initiative relies heavily on GPS tracking data received from mammals, birds and fish, which gives coordinators a good picture of where animals are spending time, the routes they take, and areas where safe migration routes are needed.

It is a joint project of the state's Division of Wildlife Resources and Department of Transportation.

Blair Stringham, wildlife migration initiative coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said they have now completed more than a hundred projects, and for them to be effective, they have to align with animals' tendencies and behaviors.

"Some of the really cool things we have done though, we've been able to install overpasses, which are essentially bridges going over roadways so animals can move back and forth," Stringham explained. "They've been really successful, with a lot of different animal species."

Stringham pointed out they have also been able to install underpasses, as well as fencing projects to keep wildlife off roads. They have even found ways to help fish move from one stretch of river to other tributaries if they were cut off by roadways.

Stringham emphasized helping animals migrate can save their lives in the process. Even so, about 4,900 deer were killed last year due to vehicle collisions. Stringham acknowledged many people do not realize the material damage which results from these accidents can add up quickly. He added keeping wildlife off the roads keeps people safer, too, and the evidence shows the projects are helping.

"We tend to see a huge improvement in the number of collisions with wildlife when we do these kinds of projects," Stringham observed. "We've seen anywhere from 75% to 90% success on most of these."

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources recently released an app, called the "Utah Roadkill Reporter." It allows anyone to report animals killed on the road as they come across them. Stringham stated it helps contractors locate and remove carcasses, and the data is also used to plan future projects to help prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions.

Migrating wildlife can struggle with the extensive fencing throughout the West, and a new study is filling in the gaps on where these fences are in southwest Montana.

Simon Buzzard, senior coordinator of wildlife connectivity for the National Wildlife Federation and the report's lead author, said the variety of wildlife in the region is extensive, from large mammals such as pronghorn, mule deer and grizzly bears, to ground-nesting birds such as sage grouse.

"This host of species that migrate between public lands and private lands, across elevation changes and across state borders; we don't know how fences are impacting those movements," Buzzard pointed out. "That's why it's important to create this data."

Fences are designed to contain livestock movement on working lands but can entangle other species moving through the region. Buzzard noted more wildlife friendly fencing designs can help migrating animals better navigate fenced areas. He added hard-to-navigate fencing is an issue not just on private lands but public lands as well.

The preference is for fencing to be no higher than 40 inches, and for bottom wires to be at least 18 inches off the ground.

"To allow for sensitive species like pronghorn to go under but also for juveniles of other species," Buzzard emphasized. "Juvenile elk, juvenile moose, black bears. A lot of these large-bodied mammals still prefer to go under fences than to go over them."

Buzzard's study found only 3% of sampled fences in Beaverhead and Madison counties had bottom wires 18 inches or higher and only 6% had top wires of 40 inches or lower.

He noted financing is available for landowners to convert existing fencing into wildlife-friendly fencing, especially if a lot of big game species move across their lands.

A controversial proposal to let individual hunters kill two bears per season instead of one is on the agenda at a meeting of the California Fish and Game Commission's Wildlife Resources Committee tomorrow and Thursday. The state allows hunters as a group to kill 1,700 hundred black bears per year, and 1,300 were taken in 2022.

Judie Mancuso, founder and president of the group Social Compassion in Legislation, opposes hunting.

"From an ethical and moral standpoint, we absolutely shouldn't be hunting bears," Mancuso said. "This is purely a trophy sport. It's not about being overrun with bears."

Both conservationists and the pro-hunting advocacy group Howl for Wildlife are rallying members to weigh in at the meeting. Hunters have submitted a petition to authorize a second bear tag for the Fall hunt and to allow tags to be resold if they are not used within the season, which starts in August with two weeks of archery hunting and then transitions to rifle hunting through late December.

The Wildlife committee will also take comment on the development of a new bear management plan, which was last updated in 1998. Mancuso wants the hunt to be stopped until the new bear-management plan is approved.

"We don't want to be killing any bears because this management plan hasn't been completed," she said. "And the department has no idea how many bears we even have in the state. "

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife's 2020 bear take report estimated the population to be about 15,000 animals in the official hunting grounds. And bear tags are big business. In 2020, California sold 30,000 tags and raised more than $1.5-million for wildlife management and conservation.