1) Clean your grill after every use. Burn off any remaining food particles and scrub the grease from grills, smokers and other outdoor cookers. If cooking over an open fire, remove any unburned food or scraps from the fire pit. After using the grill, put it in your garage or a place that a bear can not get to it.

2) Remove your bird feeders. Remove bird feeders during the period when bears are most active, mid- March to mid-November. (Birds don’t tend to need supplemental feeding at this time anyway). At a minimum, make feeders unavailable by hanging them at least 10 feet from the ground and four feet from any supporting post or tree trunk. Better yet, take bird feeders down and bring them in at night. Regularly pick up all waste seed, hulls and shells, or use only shelled seeds and nuts. Store all bird seed indoors.

3) Keep your lawn mowed and weeded. Grasses, dandelions and clover are natural bear foods. Keep the landscape open in the area surrounding your house.

4) Gardens: Consider electric fencing if you have a garden. Vegetable gardens, especially those containing potatoes and root vegetables such as carrots and beets, attract bears. Flower gardens are not as attractive to bears as long as they don’t contain sweet vetch, dandelions or clover. Never use blood meal as a fertilizer or deer repellent in any type of garden.

5) Don’t leave pets unattended outside, especially at night or when a bear is known to be in the area. Store pet food inside. Consider feeding pets (and livestock) at midday so they are finished eating before dusk. Bring pet food bowls inside as soon as pets are finished eating. Don’t leave bones and scented chew toys laying around your yard.

• Report all bear sightings and incidents on your property to your local wildlife agency. If it’s a grizzly bear, call immediately.

• If you are certain the bear is a black bear, encourage it to leave. Bang on pots and pans or make other loud noises. (Boat air horns work well.) The more stressful a bear’s encounter with you is, the less likely it is to come back.

• If you unexpectedly encounter a bear in your yard, walk, don’t run away. Move slowly. If the bear is a grizzly with cubs, don’t make eye contact, and don’t get between her and her cubs or threaten the cubs in any way. If the bear charges, stand your ground. Bears commonly “bluff charge,” stopping within a few feet.

• If a grizzly continues to come at you, lie face flat on the ground, hands clasped around the back of your neck, and play dead. In this non threatening position, a bear will likely leave you alone or, at worst, paw you and inflict only minor, superficial injuries.

• Keep bear spray handy. Always have a canister of bear spray (at least eight ounces) on your belt and near the front and back doors of your house. Make sure it is an EPA-registered bear spray with 1-2% capsaicin and related capsaicinoids, a spray duration of at least six seconds and a range of 25 feet. Familiarize yourself with the directions for using the spray, but use it only if confronted with a charging bear. Spray toward the bear, aiming slightly downward.

• SOURCE: Defenders of the Wild

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