Re: Bear Boxes Proposed for Yellowstone, At Last

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2009/09/05/news/40bears.txt
Foundation launches campaign to protect bears, save lives
published on Friday, September 4, 2009 9:24 PM MDT

By Chronicle Staff
Most people in bear country have heard the saying, “A fed bear is a dead bear.”

Some -- like Kerry Gunther, a bear management biologist for Yellowstone National Park -- know first-hand how true it is.

"Bears that obtain human food eventually become more aggressive toward humans, and may need to be removed from the population," Gunther said. "Almost every year for the past few years, it has been necessary for a bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to be euthanized for this reason. It's the toughest part of this job."

The solution is the use of large, bear-proof storage containers, or "bear boxes," which help keep bears from becoming conditioned to human food.

The problem is that fewer than 25 percent of Yellowstone's roadside campgrounds -- the most likely place for a bear to seek and obtain food -- have bear boxes...

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

I remember thanking Reds Meadow for buying a few of them six or seven years ago. Now all the campsites have them but Reds Meadow is no longer the vendor in the valley, the NF took over after private vendors made the improvements. Freakin gov't

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Vince
Freakin gov't

Yeah, private vendors are so much better.

Freakin' Red's Meadow necks!

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eeek

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Vince
Freakin gov't

Yeah, private vendors are so much better.

Freakin' Red's Meadow necks!

There is a single instance I can think of where I believe a private concessionaire did a better job at running a place than the government. It was not a natural site, but rather the Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown, CA. Back when the concessionaire ran it, it had longer train rides, frequent major locomotive steam-ups of all of the superb old equipment (which, BTW, was well-taken-care-of), long excursions that were well-attended, in-depth roundhouse tours and more operating days. When the Cal. State RR Museum took over as the main operator, almost all of that real living history went away, and many pieces of fascinating operable equipment became static museum pieces (= blah). In that one instance, I long for the good old days.

I suspect that there are other RR-related situations where this happens too. The famous Civil War engine "The General," which fully restored tro operable condition in the early 1960's and remains so today, is now merely a display piece in a museum in Kennesaw, GA. I think the B&O RR Museum in Baltimore actually runs their wonderful old equipment, but don't know for sure.

Well, at least up in Carson City and Virginia City, they run their old magnificent stuff once in awhile - unlike California, who keeps it perpetually dormant under lock and key.

I remember visiting Yellowstone and Grand Teton. We were always staying in cabins, but I was thinking of maybe a tent cabin at Grand Teton. I asked about food storage and was a bit surprised when I was told that the typical thing was to store food in a car trunk.

At other places with bears we were even told that food in plain sight in a vehicle was OK, as they were far more worried about squirrels. I remember there were scattered bear boxes in those campgrounds for motorcycle and bicycle riders.