Today's Dilemma - Trash!

I just got a new garbage can!

Ok, I completely understand why that probably doesn't elicit thoughts of excitement and wonder, but bear with me for a moment...you may find the subject to be more interesting than you might think.

Many people remember, or have heard stories of, the days when throngs of visitors gathered each night for the bear feeding "shows" held in Yellowstone National Park. Trash dumps were well known to both bears and guests, and people often fed bears hand to mouth. Unfortunately, bears are wild creatures, and this practice ultimately led to increased frequency and severity of bear attacks as the animals became habituated to human food and being fed. Thankfully, these "shows" were discontinued in the 1970s and visitors are now taught the familiar(well, to us at least!) mantra that "A fed bear is a dead bear".

Part of living in area dominated by wilderness, no matter how large or small the developed area within it, is learning how to co-habitat with area wildlife. In communities such as mine, that happen to have a very large wildlife preserve right next door, both the abundance and variety of said wildlife also increases. And where there are hungry animals, people and a quickly shrinking window of time before the long, cold winter, there are conflicts. Enter, the Trash Dilemma.

In addition to the feat of co-habitation and general management, Gardiner also has a few other uphill battles in fighting the Trash Dilemma. First, we are a rural community, with many facilities and services located a significant distance away. Second, we are small. Combine this with the distance and investment in time required to reach many services, this often makes the DIY attitude a necessity. One required DYI is just about anything involving trash disposal. Trash pick up, both commercial and residential, is only available if you personally contract with a private company to pick up your trash, and even finding this can be difficult because there aren't many willing to do it. Many of those that are willing are located 50-75 miles away in Livingston or Bozeman, making them a completely inefficient option for businesses like restaurants. This means that most of us have the "Trash Pass". This little pass (which I honestly have no idea how I get or why I need it...no one has EVER asked to see it) which entitles the resident or business to take their trash to the local dump....a big rectangle of chain link fence lined with green boxes, and one lone guy sitting in a folding chair who gives you a funny look if you slow down too much and look like you may not know to go to the box with the big red X on it. Maybe then he might check your pass, but if you look like you know what you're doing, he just waves and smiles.

No, the actual act of taking one's trash to the dump is not a big deal. If so, I'd suggest a persona laziness check. The problems with the dump lie with, first, that the bears like it, and black bears and grizzlies alike are perfectly capable of doing some damage to a chain link fence. Enough damage, in fact, that they had to temporarily electrify it this fall because they were not able to fully repair the remnants of a visit by a local grizzly bear.

Gardiner Dump's Fall Visitor

Talks are constant about the options to actually bear-proof the dump, and for the sake of other bears out there, I sincerely hope they figure out a workable solution, and soon.
Second big dump problem is that even the most efficient person, business or family can't typically get to the dump for each individual trash bag they fill. Keeping stuff in the mud room is just darn stinky and gross, and your plain old run-of-the-mill green garbage can just won't cut it. End result of using green garbage can? Leah driving up to the house at 11pm after a very long 2-job day and finding a very happy black bear sitting next to the back door, completely surrounded by contents of the green garbage can and happily nibbling away. Goodbye to good night's sleep that night since it was almost an hour before he wandered away and I could get to my door! He, and others, made many visits around the area this fall:

Mom and Cubs....meet Chickens and Horse!


Here's where the new garbage can comes in - we have a great organization here in town(led by one very motivated and passionate woman, Ilona Popper) called Bear Awareness Gardiner. The main goal of her organization is to provide, free of charge, bear-resistant garbage cans called "Unbearable Bins" to local residents. The funding for these is provided solely through donations and fundraising, and they are definitely getting out there! Coming up, they are also launching a campaign to assist local restaurants to install commercial bear-resistance recepticals. Go Bear Awareness Gardiner!

Due to the efforts of organizations such as Bear Awareness Gardiner, the Bear Creek Council, Yellowstone Country Guardians and diligence of local residents and businesses, fewer and fewer bears have or will be killed because they learned to eat trash. With effort, maybe we will be able to downgrade the Trash from a dilemma to just annoying one of these days.