Seward Cares For Its Bears: An Origin Story
Bears know–
They know and sense the world through an incredible ability to smell. Their skill with olfactory detection defies what we can comprehend given our own limits of scent detection. Consider the enthusiasm of dogs when exploring the world around them–through their own remarkable sense of smell. They perceive the comings and goings of life in ways we cannot even detect. Now, layer on an even more skilled scent detector and you enter into the realm of the bear.
Bears are smart, they learn, they teach and they are food motivated. In seasons or areas where food becomes limited and within proximity of humans, and where our unsecured food, waste or scented items (which may not be recognized as non-food items, consider sweet scented lotions, lip balms, etc. ) become attractants, we then find ourselves in a situation that requires an extra step of care.
Summer 2023, Seward Alaska
Given recent “big” winters and extended cold weather into Spring, the normal availability of forage foods for bears was limited and diminished. Seward suffered a negligible berry season, and along with other food limiting factors, the bears of the surrounding area came to town looking for food. And, they found it.
Seward experienced an extraordinary incursion of black bears and some brown bears. These bears become daily rovers of neighborhoods, apartment buildings, downtown alleys and even the waterfront taking up space along side anglers and looking for a catch.
Unsecured trash, non-bear resistant trash cans and dumpsters made for easy rewards of trash and human food by scavenging bears. Raids on unsecured dumpsters became a regular occurrence with debris strune everywhere.
Each reward guaranteed a return.
If this wasn’t issue enough, a mother bear known as a sow, was rewarded with food waste at the local grocery store dumpster compactor, which consistently was struning waste through its unsecured dump shoot areas. This was heart wrenching.
Day after day this mother bear and her cub would come to the grocery store and navigate hundreds of tourists, locals and the adjacent highway traffic.
I could not look away.
Collectively, we, Seward, could do better. We just needed a strategy.
Over the next few weeks I worked with a dear friend, Michelle McAfee of Spark and Muse, to adapt some of my artwork and create a sticker and tag line for a collaborative that would become Seward Cares For Its Bears.
Today, this collaborative is made of members and organizations of the community all focused on elevating bear awareness and preparedness in Seward. Together, the team has created resources for recreational visitors, overnight guests and rentals, campground guidelines, as well as ways to engage in the initiative is very creative ways.
Alaska Waste, the local waste management service, donated 10 bear resistant trash cans and coordinated with the Seward Chamber of Commerce and Seward Arts Council to engage 10 local artists in custom painting the bear cans and then placing them in prominent spaces throughout the community as a means to help people become familiar with bear resistant trash carts and to help increase bear awareness and proper trash disposal.
These bear resistant trash carts will be featured in a First Friday show in Seward on July 5, 2024 at the Tidewater Taphouse. Don’t miss it!
In addition, the collaborative has provided presentations to local community organizations to help increase awareness, is seeking grants to help cover the cost of replacing or modifying current non-bear resistant trash receptacles throughout the community, and to support community-available resources and trainings that can help people become informed of how to live in bear country.
Stay tuned for updates on the Seward Care For Its Bears collaborative and its efforts to make a positive difference for both residents and local bears, as we share this space and both call it home.