Columbia Falls a natural ‘funnel’ for bears

With a river running through it and plenty of bear foods along the way, Columbia Falls is basically a funnel for bears, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Park conflict management specialist Justine Vallieres told Columbia Falls City Council last week.

That’s why it’s so important to mitigate conflicts, she told them.

“Rivers are bear highways,” she said.

Most of the conflicts happen on the east side of town, which abuts the river. And it’s not just black bears either, though there’s plenty of them — it’s grizzlies.

All told, there’s about 1,200 grizzlies in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, a wide swath of land that runs from Glacier National Park south to Ovando, so it stands to reason a few would wander into Columbia Falls, which sits right on the edge of the NCDE grizzly bear recovery zone.

Last year, Vallieres responded to 18 grizzly bear conflict calls in Columbia Falls. The year before that, which was a bad year for wild berry crops, that number was 30.

Those numbers are actual conflict calls, too. Vallieres said that doesn’t include calls where people simply called to say they saw a bear or had one in their yard.

Black bear numbers were even higher, with 54 conflict calls in 2022 and 31 in 2023.

The biggest problem is unsecured garbage, though pet foods, chickens, both wild and cultivated fruit trees, even petroleum products seem to draw bears. Some attractants aren’t all that obvious, either — curious bears like to chew on hot tub covers, it seems.

Solutions are often simple, though sometimes initially expensive. The city has been upgrading the trash receptacles at its parks, replacing old trash cans with bear-resistant ones.

Each metal can costs about $1,100 to $1,500. Residential bear-resistant cans cost about $300 each. The cans are built to last, however.

Just changing the time of trash pickup on the east side of the city has helped, as cans aren’t left on the curb as long.

Bear-resistant trash cans are proven to work, as long as they’re properly latched. Electric fencing works well. Vallieres showed a video of a griz getting into a dumpster. After a portable electric fence was put up around it, the bear left it alone.

Mayor Don Barnhart asked if a person should be concerned about being charged by a bear in River’s Edge Park, which has frequent bear sightings.

Vallieres said it’s not likely, as most bears are bedded down during the day. But, if a person with a dog ran into a sow with cubs, “You never know,” she cautioned.

In other words, people should take precautions. Keeping dogs on leashes and carrying bear spray, even in a city park, is not a bad idea.