dumpsters and fuzzy berry eaters

So there are these cute fluffy things that roam around our town called bears.... My dog will chase them to no end, they like apples and berry’s, they have lived here longer then any of us has. They are more local then any one.... So my question is why do we still have problems with bears and garbage.. Things are getting better, the new bins down town are not torn apart. And people are trying to put garbage in bear proof cans, but there is still problems. We all have screwed up at some point having attractants on our properties and not having it taken care of properly. But there is more we can do... Today I seen a Dumpster that is heaving with garbage and clearly a bear has had a great time getting the goods. The one near the weight station near the museum for example.  The dumpsters we have are not great they seem weak, and not very bear proof. All it takes is one person to over fill it or lose the lock and the bear is in there, or they simply just pry it open.Fancy smancy dumpsters are expensive but shouldn’t this be in the budget like 30 years ago??

Other mountain communities do it, why are we so slow to do it ?? 

ok rant over now discuss 

 

Photos: 

Looks like a job for our new bylaw enforcers. Time to kick some butts so our furry friends don,t get into trouble.

Looks like a job for our new bylaw enforcers. Time to kick some butts so our furry friends don,t get into trouble.

I think Rossland is behind the times because up until the last couple of years we haven't had a whole lot of problems with bears.  Yes they've always been here, but in the past we seemed to have had a good enough relationship with each other that there haven't been a lot of problems.

  It might be with havig more new people in the community not being used to living with wildlife, and having to take the necessary measures (like closing thier basement door while they're away with garage inside then blaming the communty for their own mistakes), increased development in their habitat and degredation of their habit through logging.  The problems with bears appears to be on the rise in quite a few communities in BC including our neighbors in Castlegar, Trail and Nelson, also up Revelstoke they're seeing a dramatic increase with bear issues.

  However, this picture you posted is one of pure ignorance and apathy.  People dumping garbage irresponsibly like this are 

1.)Plain stupid, ignorant and lack respect for our community

2.)Too cheap to buy garbage stickers

3.)Too lazy to dispose of their garbage in a proper manner

Again, I think on the whole the community does fairly well in regards to respecting our furry friends, but ufortunately with this issue a few ignorant people can create a problem for thde entire town.

Hey everyone! This is Joelle from the Museum.

We watch the dumpsters pretty closely and make sure we call Alpine as soon as they look like they are getting full, once they are full, and then repeatedly until they come deal with them. They love us.

We will continue to do this.. but given we've called them many times in just the last two weeks, I think it's clear there aren't enough dumpsters there or someone is not locking them up and it becomes a free for all.

With the major biking event we had this weekend, we were asked numerous times where those people were supposed to put their household garbage, and we couldn't come up with an easy answer for them given they were staying all over town in RVs and not necessarily tied to a hotel or campground or anything. Since the dumpsters are locked (normally), I don't believe the event is to blame for this particular image. However, if we want to keep bringing in events like this, the event planners need to plan for that situation and make sure the visitor centre (museum), Kootenay Gateway, City Hall, Ferraro's and the library know the plan.

We are also working on getting bear-proof garbages for our site with Wildsafe, but the dumpsters are another story! I really hope we can find a community solution.

Hey Joelle, I'm just curious, who has keys to the dumpsters in the museum parking lot?  And shouldn't they be exercising some judgement about where they leave their garbage when the dumpsters are obviously full?

@Dstrelioff - those of us in Black Bear and Paterson who didn't have garbage pickup.  There was three dumpsters there a couple weeks ago, two for residential and one for construction waste, now there's only one for residential.

These dumpsters are not manage by the cit of rossland. They are managed ny alpine disposal.

These dumpsters are not manage by the cit of rossland. They are managed ny alpine disposal.

good post. I agree. Need a few bearproof bins on every street in which people walk their garbage to. $$