Many of you know that during past summers I have volunteered to check several of the Swan Valley’s dispersed campsites, clean up garbage and visit with campers who have questions about food storage in bear country. Thanks to a winter fundraiser, ongoing donations and local support, this summer I am paid part-time by the Living With Wildlife Foundation in partnership with the Flathead National Forest, Swan Lake Ranger District. These organizations are helping me and the community strengthen and improve our education efforts. The Forest Service also supplies a vehicle for me to drive, which has reduced my personal vehicle and fuel expenses.
I want to encourage folks who are camping to enjoy this beautiful valley. However, before you leave your campsite, take an extra minute to look at your camp area as a bear would. Those breakfast and lunch scraps in the fire pit? A bear will smell those and find his way to them and eat them. You might be long gone, but the person coming in after you will be surprised to have a bear visit (because it got a food reward earlier).
Maybe you “only” left half an orange, a banana peel, or an apple core. But that bruin would even come back for another slurp of soda in that bent can you forgot on the ground. A bear’s nose will know and he or she will remember! Think like a bear. Teach your kids and out-of-state friends to think like that, too. And don’t endanger the next camper or the bear.
A few other reminders:
• Please use food storage boxes provided at designated camp spots (if available). Store your food and drinks (including water) in them when you are not at your campsite or if you are sleeping. (Items like toothpaste and perfumed candles are considered food.) They are not trash receptacles, by the way.
• Camp in designated camp spots if possible. Leave them clean. Avoid roadside camping, where there might be game trails you don’t know about.
• Campfires MUST be dead out. Run your hand through the ashes, before leaving camp. I have come upon quite a few smoldering fires, some in fire pits in designated camp spots, but some in fire rings at roadside camp spots. Smoldering ashes could start a wildfire.
Dispersed areas in the Swan Valley are open for camping but leaving garbage on the ground is illegal. No garbage service is provided. Please don’t assume someone else has time to pick up your trash or find a place to put it. You should “pack it in, pack it out”, and take your garbage home for proper disposal. And if you toss your garbage in the back of your truck, secure it before driving.
Please take your family’s dirty diapers home with you, too. Bears investigate anything with a strong smell, and they will come to a campsite that smells of diapers just as quickly as one that smells of leftover breakfast and lunch.
Let’s all do our part to respect the landscape.
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