My Plans
1. Aversive Conditioning
a. Details
· Aversive conditioning will be implemented throughout La Plata County.
· The goal of aversive conditioning is to give the bears the worst experience possible so they do not return to the area.
· Cerulean bear dogs, rubber bullets, bean bags, air horns, can be used for aversive conditioning, theses have been very successful items to frighten bears away from people and are quiet popular.(Conditioning 2012)
· How will we keep track of problem bears is we can if possible tag them or take photographs to recognize them.
· Hopefully this program will be covered by local donations and fundraisers.
· Agencies and employees that will carry out this system will be the Colorado Division of wildlife and the Colorado Forest Services.
· There may be opportunity to volunteer t help the Forest Services or the DOW.
b. Pros.
The humans will be safer if the aversive conditioning takes effect on the bears.
There is a good chance of success for this plan.
The bears will not be miss-treated.
c. Cons.
It will be difficult to keep track of the bears that are being aversively conditioned.
People may be encouraged to mistreat the bears.
2. Diversion Feeding
a. Details
· There will be a select handful of locations where diversion stations will be placed throughout the forests of the town boarders.
· Putting these feeding stations away from certain populated areas will draw the bears away from those areas.
· The Division of Wildlife will decide exactly where to place theses feeding stations.
· The type of food that will be offered includes various meats and byproducts that give out large amounts of sent.
· The food can be scavenged from road kill or dead animals.
· There will be a bear smart fundraiser festival to raise the money for these expenses.
· We will have each feeding station fenced off with no hunting posted around them so hunters do not attempt to kill the bears during their feeding sessions.
· Theses feeding stations will only be stocked every few months so the sites won’t have a major impact on natural foraging and hunting behaviors.
· Depending on the performance of theses feeding stations the stocking of them may be inconsistent.
b. Pros. Theses feeding stations will draw the bears away from the people and make their life’s safer.
c. Cons. If so many bears are attracted to theses feeding stations there may be conflict between the bears.
Hunters may attempt to get through the fenced off areas to kill the bears.
The feeding areas may create an unnatural population of bears.
3. Public Awareness
a. Details
· During Bear Smart week, the fundraiser festivals will have catered food which will also create attraction and will be paid for by the same people that fund Bear Smart Durango and fundraiser money (Bear 2012).
· The Bear Smart Durango awareness program will be putting on the bear awareness week.
· Increased media coverage to promote “Bear Aware Week” There will be flyers and posters created so people know the date of the event.
· This event will take place at Buckley park on August 18th 2013 11:00 – 5:00
· This event will make people more aware of the dangers of bears on our property.
· Bear Smart Durango will sponsor all the events during bear awareness week as usual.
· This event will be considered a success if we rise $XXXXXXXXXXX in order to fund feeding stations.
b. Pros
- This event raises awareness in the community about living in bear country.
- This event will make civilians care more about the Human/Bear conflict.
c. Cons
- We may not be able to cover all these expenses.
- Difficult to measure the impact this event has had on community awareness.
a. Details
· Aversive conditioning will be implemented throughout La Plata County.
· The goal of aversive conditioning is to give the bears the worst experience possible so they do not return to the area.
· Cerulean bear dogs, rubber bullets, bean bags, air horns, can be used for aversive conditioning, theses have been very successful items to frighten bears away from people and are quiet popular.(Conditioning 2012)
· How will we keep track of problem bears is we can if possible tag them or take photographs to recognize them.
· Hopefully this program will be covered by local donations and fundraisers.
· Agencies and employees that will carry out this system will be the Colorado Division of wildlife and the Colorado Forest Services.
· There may be opportunity to volunteer t help the Forest Services or the DOW.
b. Pros.
The humans will be safer if the aversive conditioning takes effect on the bears.
There is a good chance of success for this plan.
The bears will not be miss-treated.
c. Cons.
It will be difficult to keep track of the bears that are being aversively conditioned.
People may be encouraged to mistreat the bears.
2. Diversion Feeding
a. Details
· There will be a select handful of locations where diversion stations will be placed throughout the forests of the town boarders.
· Putting these feeding stations away from certain populated areas will draw the bears away from those areas.
· The Division of Wildlife will decide exactly where to place theses feeding stations.
· The type of food that will be offered includes various meats and byproducts that give out large amounts of sent.
· The food can be scavenged from road kill or dead animals.
· There will be a bear smart fundraiser festival to raise the money for these expenses.
· We will have each feeding station fenced off with no hunting posted around them so hunters do not attempt to kill the bears during their feeding sessions.
· Theses feeding stations will only be stocked every few months so the sites won’t have a major impact on natural foraging and hunting behaviors.
· Depending on the performance of theses feeding stations the stocking of them may be inconsistent.
b. Pros. Theses feeding stations will draw the bears away from the people and make their life’s safer.
c. Cons. If so many bears are attracted to theses feeding stations there may be conflict between the bears.
Hunters may attempt to get through the fenced off areas to kill the bears.
The feeding areas may create an unnatural population of bears.
3. Public Awareness
a. Details
· During Bear Smart week, the fundraiser festivals will have catered food which will also create attraction and will be paid for by the same people that fund Bear Smart Durango and fundraiser money (Bear 2012).
· The Bear Smart Durango awareness program will be putting on the bear awareness week.
· Increased media coverage to promote “Bear Aware Week” There will be flyers and posters created so people know the date of the event.
· This event will take place at Buckley park on August 18th 2013 11:00 – 5:00
· This event will make people more aware of the dangers of bears on our property.
· Bear Smart Durango will sponsor all the events during bear awareness week as usual.
· This event will be considered a success if we rise $XXXXXXXXXXX in order to fund feeding stations.
b. Pros
- This event raises awareness in the community about living in bear country.
- This event will make civilians care more about the Human/Bear conflict.
c. Cons
- We may not be able to cover all these expenses.
- Difficult to measure the impact this event has had on community awareness.
Intro
Introduction:
The problem with bears that is being inflicted on Durango and other mountain towns is they are becoming habituated and endangering people because they are attracted to their trash cans and other things around their houses and neighborhoods. The bears are not only being drawn onto our property but they are being drawn into our homes and trash cans. The bears are being drawn to our trash cons so often because it is such an convenience for the bears that sense now there are multiple varieties of food in their forest territory that are being provided by us. We are building so much apartments and homes and other buildings in forest of the bears homes. Around the 1920s (Bear 2012) when national parks were established then people started feeding the bears. They are most active on people’s property August through early October (Bear 2012). Organizations that are involved are mostly local organizations such as Durango waste management, The Division of wildlife, Bear smart Durango and the USFS. (Bear 2012) One I have multiple ideas how to draw the bears away from people’s property without doing any severe damage.
The problem with bears that is being inflicted on Durango and other mountain towns is they are becoming habituated and endangering people because they are attracted to their trash cans and other things around their houses and neighborhoods. The bears are not only being drawn onto our property but they are being drawn into our homes and trash cans. The bears are being drawn to our trash cons so often because it is such an convenience for the bears that sense now there are multiple varieties of food in their forest territory that are being provided by us. We are building so much apartments and homes and other buildings in forest of the bears homes. Around the 1920s (Bear 2012) when national parks were established then people started feeding the bears. They are most active on people’s property August through early October (Bear 2012). Organizations that are involved are mostly local organizations such as Durango waste management, The Division of wildlife, Bear smart Durango and the USFS. (Bear 2012) One I have multiple ideas how to draw the bears away from people’s property without doing any severe damage.