[pct-l] bear canister

[melmo at mindspring.com (Melody dos Santos)]

Requiring bear canisters is important because bear behavior has changed 
a lot in areas where people started car camping. Bears lost their fear 
of humans in places like yosemite and started changing their patterns 
for finding food. They started relying on all the easily accessible 
human food in coolers, crates and cars. Bears got more bold and began 
peeling down car doors like banana peels and getting aggressive with 
humans more often. All this interaction started getting out of hand and 
research in the 70s showed that it was effecting both populations (peeps 
and bears) in a bad way. I think it's important not to make the problem 
worse in areas like yosemite where there are lots of people visiting.

This is a bear canister:
http://www.nps.gov/yose/wilderness/bfoodstorage.htm

melody


Kraig Mottar wrote:

>Why are bear canisters required and what exactly are they?
>
>I'm assuming its a safety issue. Safety laws are a waste in my opinion, like drug laws, seatbelt laws, and helmet laws. If someone needs to be protected from themselves, it is very importantant that we go out of our way to not protect them from themselves. I mean with overpopulation, court costs, etc.
>
>Kraig
>
>
>  
>
>>From: "AsABat" <AsABat@4Jeffrey.Net>
>>Date: 2005/02/09 Wed PM 08:16:59 PST
>>To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
>>Subject: RE: [pct-l] bear canister
>>
>>You were lucky she started to understand. I was stopped by a ranger going
>>down from Whitney. I had a 6-day permit starting at Trail Pass but was
>>coming out on the third day. My G4 pack was smaller than her day pack and
>>she thought I pulled a Trail Pass permit for a day hike because the day
>>permit quota was full. She grilled me for 20 minutes about where I'd been,
>>what I saw, and where I camped each night. She then called another ranger
>>and went through it all again before letting me continue. She then decided I
>>must be telling the truth. It probably would have been faster to just empty
>>my pack and show her my gear. And, yes, I had a bear can!
>>
>>AsABat
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>> 
>>When I was on my JMT YO YO  this summer on my way bac,.  I got stopped by a
>>ranger somewhere between Reds Meadow and Donahue Pass.   She asked for my
>>ID, permit and bear canister..  She got upset that I didn't have a
>>canister...
>>
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