New containers to help bear proof popular scout camp

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition teamed up with the Grand Teton Council of the Boy Scouts to “bear proof” a scout camp.

Treasure Mountain Scout Camp is located in the Teton Canyon near Grand Targhee Ski Area

Black bears and grizzly bears have been known to come looking for food at the camp.

Last year about 300 scouts had to be relocated to Little Lemhi and Island Park scout camps after a bear sighting.

The U.S. Forest Service also evacuated nearby campgrounds.

This year the Greater Yellowstone Coalition worked with the scouts to raise a $25,000 grant for the scouts to purchase the equipment needed for them to contain all their trash and food.

Scout Counselor Terry Hoopes said they are working to become bear aware.

“The new ones will allow us to have two in area campsite, as well as staff areas. We have 30 separate campsites. We have had bear boxes for many years, but just haven’t had enough,” Hoopes said.

Hoopes said the bears are lured into the area because of the food.

“They come in because they smell things.”

Idaho Conservation Coordinator for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition Kathy Rinaldi said, “Well we provided a significant portion of the funding to purchase both the dumpsters and the food storage containers. This is occupied Grizzly Bear habitats, so when the waste hauler in Teton County Idaho changed the old dumpster that were used were not compatible with the waste hauler trucks.”

Six new dumpsters and 20 food storage containers will be placed around the camp and the old ones will be distributed to other locations. The total cost for the project was $35,000.

The dumpsters and storage containers are bear resistant and were manufactured in Rexburg.

“Being bear resistant both keeps humans safe and bears wild. And that’s a big component to keeping a healthy and sustainable grizzly bear population,” Rinaldi said.

As of March 2016, Grizzly bears have been in the news quite a bit because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to remove them from protection within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem under the Endangered Species Act.

Grizzly bears were designated, or listed, as threatened with extinction in 1975.

The scouts are already taking advantage of the new dumpsters and storage containers by storing food, toiletries and anything that contains a smell.

Tamara Holverson, 14, has been in scouting for years and is following in her father’s scout footsteps.

Tamara said the old storage containers couldn’t fit bags or food properly.

“You could barely close them when they were full now the new ones are so spacious,” Tamara said.

She also said,”You got to know your bear safety, you got to watch all your bear videos so you can be bear aware.”

The new food storage containers will be distributed coming this week.