Big Sky Times

The Missoula City-County Health Department is pushing to expand the current bear buffer zone, which was established in 2010. 

The Bear Smart Working Group, which came together to find solutions to reduce bear-human interactions in the Missoula area, found 49% of recorded bear-human interaction was the result of garbage in 2018-2021. 

Following the June 15 board meeting, it was decided the proposal will be discussed further after initial confusion regarding the language used.

"The current Bear Buffer Zone is not large enough to keep bears from getting into garbage and causing public safety issues. It really needs to extend beyond the city limits to the urban wildland interface," said department Director of the Environmental Health Division of Missoula City-County Health Department Shannon Therriault. 

According to NBC Montana, residents asked for clarification on what is considered "offensive" trash storage and when they would be notified of changes going into effect. 

Health officials agreed to make changes in the language, noting the proposal's language was phrased using Montana's state statute, which has not been updated since 1994. Currently, health officials expect the edited version of the proposal to be open for public comment in July.

Missoula health officials plan to address this topic by requiring residents in the proposed expanded bear buffer zone to utilize bear-resistant containers. 

According to Jamie Jonkel, bear conflict specialist for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) Region 2, in 2022, Missoula FWP responded to approximately 1,000 black bear incidents in the Missoula Valley. 

"The majority of the calls involved bears accessing unsecured garbage," Jonkel said. "It's not that the valley has too many bears, but that residents in Missoula and the surrounding rural areas are leaving several hundred tons of food-related garbage adjacent to their homes, churches, daycares and schools."

According to information included on Missoula County Voice, the new buffer zone would encompass the upper Rattlesnake, Pattee Canyon, Miller Creek, Big Flat, O'Keefe Creek, Butler Creek and Grant Creek regions. 

In addition to an expanded buffer zone, efforts to reduce human-bear interactions in the Missoula region would include a combination of public education, promotion, ordinance enforcement and public and private partnerships.