Bear Smart Missoula

As of Sept. 1, 2024, bear-resistant garbage containers are now required in the Potomac area. Storing your garbage inside until pickup day is not sufficient, as wildlife managers in the area have reported that bears become habituated to the pickup schedule.

If you use a container from Grizzly Disposal or Republic Services and have trash hauled by them, you do not need to worry about purchasing a bear-resistant container. These haulers will switch out your container to a bear-resistant one soon, if they haven’t already

If you use your own trash can but still have trash hauled by Grizzly Disposal or Republic Services, you will either need to lease a bear-resistant container from your hauler or purchase your own bear-resistant container. The container needs to work with the hauler's equipment. Grizzly Disposal uses Toter containers and Republic Services uses Kodiak containers. Click here for a list of approved containers and be sure to call your hauler before purchasing one. If you purchase your own container and it gets damaged, you will need to replace it. If you lease one from your hauler and it gets damaged, they will replace it.

If you use your own trash can and do not have trash hauled by Grizzly Disposal or Republic Services, be sure to switch your container to a bear-resistant one. These containers must be certified by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee or approved by a Montana FWP bear management team biologist. You will also need to take your trash to the landfill at least once every seven days.

Click here to view the map of Potomac bear buffer zone.

As part of Phase 1 of the Bear Buffer Zone roll out, residents in the Rattlesnake and Grant Creek areas were required to have bear-resistant trash cans by Tuesday, April 30, 2024.

If you use a container from Grizzly Disposal or Republic Services and have trash hauled by them, you do not need to worry about purchasing a bear-resistant container. These haulers automatically switched out your container to a bear-resistant one by April 30.

If you use your own trash can but still have trash hauled by Grizzly Disposal or Republic Services, you will either need to lease a bear-resistant container from your hauler or purchase your own bear-resistant container. The container needs to work with the hauler's equipment. Grizzly Disposal uses Toter containers and Republic Services uses Kodiak containers. Visit https://igbconline.org/programs/bear-resistant-products/ for a list of approved containers and be sure to call your hauler before purchasing one. If you purchase your own container and it gets damaged, you will need to replace it. If you lease one from your hauler and it gets damaged, they will replace it.

If you use your own trash can and do not have trash hauled by Grizzly Disposal or Republic Services, be sure to switch your container to a bear-resistant one. These containers must be certified by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee or approved by a Montana FWP bear management team biologist. Visit https://igbconline.org/programs/bear-resistant-products/ for a list of approved containers. You will also need to take your trash to the landfill at least once every seven days.

Learn more in the Phase 1 Flyer to Grant Creek and Rattlesnake residents under "Documents" on the right-hand side.

You can now view all phases of the Bear Buffer Zone implementation on the County's property information system.

• To see where your property is located within the Bear Buffer Zone, visit this site and go to the world tab on the side (technically named "Open Layers Panel" when you hover your cursor over it). Expand "Base Support Layers" and then "Districts/Boundaries." There, you can choose to view the Bear Buffer Zone by clicking the eye icon.
  
  
• Another way to find the Bear Buffer Zone is to go to the magnifying glass tab on the side (technically named the "Open Search Panel" when you hover your cursor over it) and put in an address you wish to view. You will have to choose the property if the box opens below with several choices.
  
  Once you have highlighted a property (whether you have turned on the bear buffer zone layer or not), you can choose “Facts” on the right hand panel, and it lists whether that property is in or out of a bear zone or phase. Note, if you zoomed into a property without using the search function, you can highlight the property and still get to the fast facts, but you’ll have to click on the little red box in the upper right that has a square with a dotted line and an arrow. Once that is green, you can highlight different properties.

The Missoula County commissioners and Missoula City council voted to adopt the health code changes in fall of 2023.

On Aug .17, 2023, the Missoula City-County Health Board approved changes to the solid waste regulations in the Missoula City-County Health Code. The changes include a requirement to use bear-resistant containers in an expanded bear buffer zone, in addition to some clean up changes to the rest of the regulation. They then recommended that both the Missoula County commissioners and city council adopt the changes by reference.

The commissioners opened this hearing at their public meeting on Sept. 14, and they made a final decision at their public meeting on Sept. 28.

The Public Safety, Health and Operations Committee at the City met on Sept. 13, and the first hearing at city council took place on Oct. 2, and they made a final decision on Oct. 16.

Find the bear buffer zone recommendation and proposed changes to the solid waste regulations in the "Documents" section on the right-hand side.

As of April 5, there are increasing reports of signs of black bear activity across the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 2 (which includes Missoula). There have also been reports of grizzly bears in the Seeley Lake area.

Don't attract bears to your property. The food bears find on your property may keep them from denning. Bear attractants include garbage, birdseed, chickens, livestock, feed and pet food, tree fruit, gardens and compost, BBQs, coolers, unsecured outdoor freezers or other easily obtainable food.

Below are some ways you can make your property Bear Smart:

• Use electric fencing for attractants like chicken coops, gardens, compost piles, livestock and other attractants that are commonplace or come with the landscape. Learn more about deterring bears with electric fencing.
• Use the recommended bear-resistant products for your trash, livestock feed, coolers and other food storage.
• Make sure to thoroughly clean your BBQ after each use.
• If you do not have a bear-resistant cooler, container for livestock feed, or other food storage, store them indoors where bears cannot access them.
• Do not put birdfeeders out from March to Dec. 1, or longer if bears are still active. This year, as of Jan. 11, some bears are still active.
• Don’t leave trash, groceries or animal feed in your vehicle. Bears can pry open car and truck doors or break windows to get at food.
• If you have a fruit tree on your property, pick fruit as it becomes ripe and remove any fruit off the ground. Store the picked fruit in a secure building, garage or shed. Electric fencing may be effective at keeping bears from this attractant. Contact Missoula Valley Fruit Exchange, Garden City Harvest or Great Bear Foundation Bears and Apples program if you’re unable or need assistance picking your fruit.
• If you garden, do not use blood meal, and use an electric fence to keep bears out.
• If you compost, avoid putting meat, fish, melon rinds or other pungent scraps in the pile, or just don’t compost kitchen scraps. Keep the pile aerated and properly turned, and, again, do not use blood meal.

All too often, bears find anthropogenic foods while in their quest for natural food resources. Bears that become used to being around people may be called “habituated”. Bears that receive “food rewards” like garbage or birdseed can become “food-conditioned” and exhibit behaviors like walking on porches and causing property damage that leads to their removal. By securing attractants on your property, you can keep bears wild, improving the safety of both bears and people. Learn more about being bear smart on MissoulaBears.org

You can also learn more about being bear smart on Missoula County’s Tip of the Spear podcast The Bears are Calling: How the County and City are Becoming Bear Smart

Black bears are abundant in the Missoula Five Valleys area and are encountered frequently within urban settings along Missoula’s wildlands interface. Residents living within the Missoula Bear Buffer Zone should expect black bear activity and become aware that grizzlies are becoming more common. While recreating in the Missoula Bear Buffer Zone and Missoula’s outlying areas, carrying bear spray is recommended. If you encounter a bear while hiking or if a bear visits your home, stay calm, do not approach the bear, and report the incident to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Missoula Bears Facebook page or file a report at Missoula Bears.org.

If you encounter a bear, the bear’s behavior, rather than its species, should determine how you respond. In any bear encounter, your behavior matters.

If a bear is not actively engaged with you (looking away, ignoring you, running away or retreating):

• Give the bear space by backing away slowly from the bear and going in the opposite direction of the bear.

If a bear shows agitated/defensive behavior (huffing, jaws clacking, head swaying back and forth, bellowing, swatting the ground, and excessively salivating at the mouth):

• Stand your ground, prepare your bear spray, and speak in a calm manner, until the bear retreats.

If a bear charges or appears ready to charge:

• Stand your ground.
• If it charges, use your bear spray, when the bear comes within 30-60 feet.
• If the bear is going to touch you, go face down on the ground, cover your neck and head as much as possible, and deploy your bear spray in the bear’s face. If you do not have bear spray, play dead if it is a grizzly bear, fight back if it is a black bear.

If a bear follows you, or slowly, purposefully or methodically approaches you:

• Stand your ground.
• Get aggressive: wave your arms and shout vigorously.
• Get spray out and ready.
• Fight back if it makes contact.

If a bear enters or reaches into your tent:

• Use your bear spray.
• Fight back.