Composting with bears in mind

Vermont officials are providing tips on how to avoid attracting bears to composting areas. (VTF&W photo by John Hall)

Many Vermonters have seen some determined bears looking for food near their homes recently, state officials say. With the food scrap ban in effect, the state is providing tips for people who are composting at home so they can avoid attracting hungry bears. 

“We have been receiving lots of reports of bears on decks, tearing down bird feeders, wrecking beehives, killing chickens, and getting into trash, compost and garbage containers,” said bear biologist Jaclyn Comeau, of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. 

“First though, to deter bears, bird feeders need to be taken down until we have a foot or more of snow in December. Then, make sure anything else that might smell like food is picked up. And keep your trash container secured inside a sturdy building and don’t put it outside until the morning of pickup. Beehives, chicken coops and compost bins can be protected with electric fencing.”

If you know bears are active in your neighborhood, the best way to avoid attracting them is to take food scraps to one of the drop-off stations. You can locate them by contacting your local solid waste management district or town at www.802recycles.com, or ask your trash hauler if they pick up food scraps for composting. 

Composting at home while minimizing the chances of attracting bears can best be done with these tips:

• Use three parts of brown material for one part of green material. Browns can be dried leaf and yard debris, wood chips, which often can be delivered to your house free by a local tree service company, or shredded paper. Greens include kitchen scraps, vegetables and small amounts of fruits. Adding lots of brown material minimizes smells and speeds up composting.

• No meat, bones or seafood leftovers. They do not break down quickly and are strong wildlife attractants. The food scrap ban allows people who compost at home to dispose of meat, bones and seafood in the trash, so they can be kept in a freezer until trash day.  

• Give your compost oxygen by frequently mixing it or turning it over if it is in a container.  This reduces odors and speeds up composting.

• Does your compost smell? If so, turning it, adding more brown material and adding a layer of wood shavings or sawdust to the top should solve the issue.

• Enclose your composter with electric fencing or compost in a hard, durable container with a lid that will be challenging for a bear to open. Some types of tumblers are bear-proof.

• Electric fencing, with food scent added to the wires will discourage even persistent bears. 

• If you are currently having a bear issue, delay starting your new compost pile until the bear issue resolves. Until then, keep food scraps in the freezer or bring them to a collection site.

To learn more about properly composting food waste, go to the Department of Environmental Conservation’s website at www.VTrecycles.com.

The public is encouraged to contact their local warden if they are having a bear issue. You can find out who your local warden is at this link, and you may also submit a black bear incident report online. Contacting your warden or submitting an incident report helps wildlife officials keep track of bear issues around the state and may help shape future regulations regarding black bears.

Composting without attracting wildlife takes careful planning. For information about living with bears and to report bear damage, visit Fish and Wildlife’s website www.vtfishandwildlife.com.

— The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department

State: With bears roaming, time to take bird feeders down

With snow melting everywhere, bears are starting to emerge from their winter dens. (VTF&W Photo by Kris and Norm Senna)

As I look over the wildlife adventures we’ve had over the past two years, nothing compares with bear encounters. And I’m not talking about encounters I’ve had. It’s my wife who has been lucky enough to cross paths with multiple bears over the past two summers. If this happens during your next hike, she recommends remaining calm, and no, don’t run (more safety tips here). In fact, over this time, our ursine friends became such a part of the neighborhood that a neighbor of ours named one of the bears Ursula. 

Cute as that might be (and I’m smiling as I write this), the folks at Vermont Fish and Wildlife are hoping Vermonters can help cut back on the number of times that bears wander into residential areas. To that end, they’re asking Vermonters to take down their bird feeders now — about two weeks earlier than usual. 

With the spring thaw advancing, and reports of bear sightings starting to trickle in, wildlife officials hope this small request will make a difference, so that everyone can live together without too many frequent visits from the bears, whether walking near your home, or trying to take out the trash — which bears love to get their paws on. Hopefully less bird seed for bears means less of those other visits. Though for sure, we don’t mind seeing them once in a while - we do, after all, share a beautiful state together. 

To see Vermont Fish & Wildlife’s full press release, keep on reading. And thanks! 

— Gareth Henderson

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The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department says warm spring weather and melting snows will cause bears to come out of their winter dens in search of food.  The department recommends taking down bird feeders and keeping them stored until December, to avoid attracting bears. 

“Although we typically recommend taking down bird feeders by April 1, we are asking Vermonters to take them down early this year,” said Jaclyn Comeau, the department’s bear biologist.  

The department is already receiving bear reports as of March 7, and encourages Vermonters who experience a conflict with bears to submit a report through the Living with Black Bears web page.  The warmer temperatures predicted now will stimulate more bears to emerge from their dens to seek any food sources they can smell. 

“Preventing bears from having access to human-related foods, such as bird seed, is key to successful coexistence,” Comeau added.   

Bird feeders are just one of the things that can attract hungry bears.  Other sources of food that bears find appealing are garbage, open dumpsters, backyard chickens, pet food, barbecue grills, campsites with accessible food, and food waste.  

“Purposely feeding a bear is not just bad for the bear,” said Comeau. “It is also dangerous for you, it causes problems for your neighbors, and it is illegal.” 

The department offers the following tips to coexist with bears: 

• Take down birdfeeders between late March and December. 

• Store garbage in bear proof containers or structures—trash cans alone are not enough  

• Follow the steps on our web page for composting in bear country 

• Use electric fences to keep chickens and honeybees safe 

• Request a bear-proof dumpster from your waste hauler 

• Feed your pets indoors 

• Never feed bears, deliberately or accidentally 

And for Vermonters who wish to connect with and appreciate songbirds after taking down their birdfeeders this spring, the department will be partnering with Audubon Vermont to highlight alternatives like the Native Plants for Birds Program.  

“Birds and native plants co-evolved over millions of years together,” said Gwendolyn Causer, Audubon Vermont’s communication coordinator and environmental educator. 

“Native plants provide essential food resources for birds year-round and also host protein-rich native butterfly and moth caterpillars, the number one food for songbird nestlings.  And best of all, they do not attract bears.”  

To help better understand peoples’ interactions with bears and inform measures for coexistence with this species, the department asks Vermonters to submit reports of bears engaging in potentially dangerous behavior like targeting bird feeders or garbage bins, feeding on crops or livestock, or investigating campgrounds or residential areas, through our website’s Living with Black Bears tab.

Composting with bears in mind

Composting without attracting wildlife takes careful planning. After an increase in bear incidents at homes, Vermont wildlife officials are sharing tips to address the issue. (VF&W Photo by John Hall)

Plenty of bears are looking for food near local residences, and the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department keeps hearing from concerned homeowners. With the state’s food scrap ban in effect, officials are providing tips for people who are composting at home so they can avoid attracting hungry bears. 

“We have been receiving lots of reports of bears on decks, tearing down bird feeders, wrecking beehives, killing chickens, and getting into trash, compost and garbage containers,” said bear biologist Forrest Hammond in a statement. “We are offering some guidance on how to compost at home without attracting bears.”

Hammond recommends deterring bears by taking bird feeders down until there is a foot or more of snow in December.

“Then, make sure anything else that might smell like food is picked up,” he said. “And keep your trash container secured inside a sturdy building and don’t put it outside until the morning of pickup.  Beehives, chicken coops and compost bins can be protected with electric fencing.”

If you know bears are active in your neighborhood, the best way to avoid attracting them is to take food scraps to an available drop-off station, according to the state. You can locate them by contacting your local solid waste management district or town at www.802recycles.com, or ask your trash hauler if they pick up food scraps for composting. 

Composting at home while minimizing the chances of attracting bears can best be done with these tips:

• Use three parts of brown material for one part of green material. Browns can be dried leaf and yard debris, wood chips, which often can be delivered to your house free by a local tree service company, or shredded paper. Greens include kitchen scraps, vegetables and small amounts of fruits. Adding lots of brown material minimizes smells and speeds up composting.

• No meat, bones or seafood leftovers. They do not break down quickly and are strong wildlife attractants. (The food scrap ban allows people who compost at home to dispose of meat, bones and seafood in the trash, so they can be kept in a freezer until trash day, officials added.)  

• Give your compost oxygen by frequently mixing it or turning it over if it is in a container. This reduces odors and speeds up composting.

• Does your compost smell? If so, turning it, adding more brown material and adding a layer of wood shavings or sawdust to the top should solve the issue.

• Enclose your composter with electric fencing or compost in a hard, durable container with a lid that will be challenging for a bear to open. Some types of tumblers are bear-proof.

• Electric fencing, with food scent added to the wires will discourage even persistent bears.

• If you are currently having a bear issue, delay starting your new compost pile until the bear issue resolves. Until then, keep food scraps in the freezer or bring them to a collection site.

To learn more about properly composting food waste, go to the Department of Environmental Conservation’s website at www.VTrecycles.com.

The public is encouraged to contact their local warden if they are having a bear issue. You may also submit a black bear incident report. Contacting your warden or submitting a black bear incident report helps wildlife officials keep track of bear issues around the state and may help shape future regulations regarding black bears.

For more details, visit the black bear section of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s website.

— Gareth Henderson

Hungry bears: Looking for that next meal, wherever it may be

With snow melting everywhere, bears are starting to emerge from their winter dens. When the snow is all gone, the bird feeders should go, too, wildlife officials say. (VTF&W Photo by Kris and Norm Senna)

Bears have long memories, and they may return to some old haunts (backyards) from 2020 if they can still get a bite to eat there.

That's even more likely now, as the bears' usual food sources in the woods are quite thin these days, turning these ursine wanderers toward bird seed, compost and trash.

That's why Vermont wildlife officials are spreading the word: Take down your bird feeders, and secure your outdoor trash areas. Bears are very smart, and they remember where that trash and compost were placed last year.

State wildlife biologist Forrest Hammond said it's best to remove bird feeders whenever the snow is gone, which usually comes ahead of April 1 these days.

"The message is, if the snow's disappeared from your lawn, then you probably should take down your bird feeder, because chances are, there's gonna be a bear checking things out," he said.

The bear sightings are starting to roll in for 2021. On Monday, Hammond got a call from a neighborhood in Quechee, where a bear has been enjoying bird feeders for the past week. A common question is whether taking down the feeder at night helps. But the bear can simply adjust his schedule to the daytime, and there's usually some seed spilled on the ground anyway.

"It really doesn't do any good," Hammond said.

Last year, Vermont bears discovered many new places for food during the height of the pandemic, when everyone was at home, and houses usually empty for part of the year were not. Hammond is hopeful that warmer weather will be consistent, and lush vegetation will flourish as a result, giving bears fewer reasons to drop by houses and yards.

“That'll help, because that's the mainstay for bears, the vegetation," he said.

As a rule, the entire month of April is "pretty bleak" for bear food in the woods, Hammond said. They'll go to beaver ponds to find some spouts by the water, or even climb some trees — like Aspens — which get their buds early. That's why you sometimes see scratch marks on Aspen trees early in the years, and racoons and squirrels do the same.

However, climbing is often a last resort.

"It takes a lot of energy for a bear that might weigh 150 pounds to climb up just to get a few buds," Hammond said.

As spring goes on, if you see a bear in your backyard, Hammond recommends making some noise, like yelling at the animal, to encourage it to back off. That may not only keep the bear from your yard, but also your neighbors' yards. Just as bears remember where they want to eat, they also remember negative experiences. The more a bear gets used to an uninterrupted food source, the harder it is to discourage them from it, Hammond said.

"Then they'll kind of adopt a neighborhood or a set of neighborhoods," he said.

Still, Hammond noted that last year, more Vermonters learned the importance of securing their trash areas and removing bird feeders. He encouraged people to keep educating their neighbors about taking those important steps.

"I've got high hopes that people in Vermont are learning how to live better with bears," Hammond said.

— Gareth Henderson

To report a bear sighting in Vermont, fill out this online form.

Bear necessities: Food tops the list

With more cubs to feed this year, Vermont black bears have been all the more relentless in finding food sources . (Photo Courtesy Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department)

You might call it the year of the bear. The state has received a record number of sightings, especially in June, as black bears often neared human dwellings in search of food and finding it, in bird feeders, compost piles and other plentiful sources. 

Humans are witnessing the impact of multiple factors, according to state bear biologist Forrest Hammond. He said the short winter was followed by a delay in vegetation growth, turning bears away from their usual food sources. The ongoing drought is having the same effect. 

"With bears, it's always about food," Hammond said. "They go five months without eating at all, and their whole social structure is based on size."

He urged people to bring in their bird-feeders and secure any bags of bird seed — a major attraction. When a bear strikes bird-seed gold, or some other abundant source, it's likely to keep returning every night and visit the neighbors, too. 

"A bear gets more nutrition from those five pounds of bird seed than a whole day of eating vegetation in the woods," Hammond said. 

With the recent composting law in effect, that's proving to be a big bear attraction, as well. Hammond said there are a lot of people who haven't composted before, and if they're composting incorrectly or odors are getting out, the bears will show up. 

"There's probably a lot more compost in people's backyards than there's ever been," Hammond said. He noted there has also been more food waste, with a large number of people at home for many weeks. 

Not only are there a lot of reasons for bears to drift closer to houses, but there are more bears, too. Hammond explained that in the past decade, bear food sources in the wild have become more cyclical, with a good food year followed by a poor one. The adult females have begun synchronized reproduction, so that a lot more cubs are born after a good food year, he said. 

"Every adult female we knew of, in Vermont and New Hampshire, all produced cubs this past year, so there are more females with little cubs out and about this year," Hammond said. "The females have been desperate to find enough food to lactate and feed their little cubs, so they survive."   

Though there are many ursine roamers this year, there is something people can do if they catch a bear in the act: just holler. Hammond said if you make some noise, it can make the bear retreat. 

"The angry tone of your voice is something animals recognize," he said. 

That can be an important deterrent, Hammond said. He noted that a family at a second home in Waitsfield recently saw a bear at the property line while they were eating a meal at their picnic table. They all went inside, and the bear readily wandered over and got a buffet some bears could only dream of. And it won’t soon forget about it, either.

"That bear is emboldened and empowered," Hammond said. When that happens, he added, it will come back for many weeks looking for more. 

The state has an online form people can use to report black bear incidents. When it comes to responding to reports, the state prioritizes incidents of significant property damage, such as bears breaking into houses or cars, Hammond said. Fortunately, incidents of injury to people are rare. 

"Bears go to great lengths to avoid people, and not to touch people," Hammond said.

More information on living with black bears is available online through the Vermont  Fish & Wildlife Department. 

— Gareth Henderson 

Going wild: From chipmunks to bears

We’re getting into wildlife a bit more this week on Omni Reporter, starting with a couple notes about chipmunks, which have been out and about quite a lot in 2020. 

Those speedy critters were apparently working on a surge in population for a while. A bumper crop of beechnuts and acorns in Vermont last fall helped greatly, allowing chipmunks to hoard those food supplies for the winter, as biologist and University of Vermont professor emeritus Bill Kilpatrick recently said on Vermont Public Radio. This led to “high survivorship from their first litter of young” in the early spring, he told VPR. And of course, spring came earlier, which helped them gain even more momentum.

Other creatures have been enjoying the mild spring, too, one of them being much larger than a chipmunk. Bears have been running a sort of neighborhood patrol lately, it seems; many are the Facebook posts about bear sightings. Could one factor be that people are just at home, walking more often, and noticing them more? Perhaps, but sightings appear to be occurring at all times of day. 

More about that on Thursday, when I speak with wildlife biologist Forrest Hammond, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s leading bear expert. Until then, enjoy the outdoors, and if you encounter a bear, here are some safety tips to follow. 

— Gareth Henderson