As the range for grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone area expands, so do efforts to bear-proof public sites. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, together with the Targhee Women’s Club, recently purchased two additional bear resistant containers from Bear Guardian in Rexburg, Idaho for the Warm River Campground near Ashton and will be installed later this year. Like all campgrounds in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest,
Warm River is located in occupied grizzly bear habitat. Last summer, the Forest Service contacted GYC to see they would partner with the Targhee Women’s Club in Island Park to purchase two additional bear resistant containers for the group site at Warm River.
Because there was a lack of accessible bear resistant trash containers, visitors to the group site were leaving their trash out, making easy pickings for a hungry bear. When bears get an easy food reward, it almost always end badly, with either people getting hurt or bears being euthanized.
