Do any of you have any contacts or thoughts on some way to organize contributions around bear bins? I think we can all agree bears getting habituated to human trash is bad for everyone - the bear, the camper, and the hunter. But recently I've had a couple of experiences and chats with folks at RMNP where they're just getting overwhelmed. The problem is they only had the budget to put bear bins for about 20% of the camp sites in the various campgrounds in the park, and people just aren't using them.
It's not just about educating newbie campers - there just isn't the capacity. You can sell "be bear aware" all day long but if people have to walk a ways to find a bin and it's full of other campers' stuff when they get there, you're dead in the water. And they don't have the budget to add more. I talked to one park ranger recently who said they have no shortage of labor, especially volunteers in the summer. They really just don't have a budget to buy the steel boxes. If those things showed up on a pallet one day they'd be installed the next week.
This felt to me like one of the best uses of charitable funds I've ever heard. Those boxes last for decades - you get a lot of mileage out of a small investment. And with people throwing millions of dollars around buying land to expand public access rights, it seems to me there ought to be SOME group or individuals who could help make this happen. But I honestly don't know where to begin with something like this. I'm a pretty private guy and don't really hang out at golf clubs or social events with the kinds of people who might take this up.
Any thoughts?
It's not just about educating newbie campers - there just isn't the capacity. You can sell "be bear aware" all day long but if people have to walk a ways to find a bin and it's full of other campers' stuff when they get there, you're dead in the water. And they don't have the budget to add more. I talked to one park ranger recently who said they have no shortage of labor, especially volunteers in the summer. They really just don't have a budget to buy the steel boxes. If those things showed up on a pallet one day they'd be installed the next week.
This felt to me like one of the best uses of charitable funds I've ever heard. Those boxes last for decades - you get a lot of mileage out of a small investment. And with people throwing millions of dollars around buying land to expand public access rights, it seems to me there ought to be SOME group or individuals who could help make this happen. But I honestly don't know where to begin with something like this. I'm a pretty private guy and don't really hang out at golf clubs or social events with the kinds of people who might take this up.
Any thoughts?
