Apple Orchard. (MickeyMoose/Wikimedia Commons)
A group of nonprofits in Haines are offering to help residents pick fruit from their trees for free. The new initiative aims to help the community take advantage of locally grown fruit while removing a possible bear attractant.
Haines has seen an increase in reports of encounters with bears in residential areas over the past year. Often these bears are attracted to outdoor food sources such as chicken coops, gardens and fruit-bearing trees.
Shannon Donahue is the Executive Director of the Great Bear Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to conserving bears and their habitat. She says that when bears can easily access food on someone’s property, they can start to rely on it.
“When we do allow bears to get into our cherry trees or our carrots or something like that, that’s part of an ongoing process of food conditioning that is rewarding bears for seeking food near peoples’ houses,” Donahue says.
Domestic fruit trees, and particularly apple trees, can be a powerful bear attractant.
Donahue says it is difficult to predict which food sources the bears will go after at a given time of year, but generally they are very good at detecting when fruits contain the most sugars.
“Typically they’re going to go after the fruit as it’s ripening and developing those sugars,” Donahue says. “It’s important to get the fruit as soon as we can. If possible, to even harvest that fruit before it gets fully ripe.”
Recently, Donahue has been working with local nonprofits on an initiative to remove fruit from trees and yards before bears can get to it. Haines Library Education Coordinator Tracy Wirak is organizing a group of volunteers to harvest fruit for residents for free. All of the usable fruit will be given back to the homeowner while anything that is rotten will be sent to Haines Compost and the Starvin’ Marvin’ community garden.
Donahue says the Great Bear Foundation has had success with a similar program that it launched 20 years ago in Missoula, Montana. The program has grown so much that the foundation ends up with a lot of surplus fruit.
“Some of that goes to food banks and to the homeless shelter,” Donahue says. “A few years ago a cidery opened up in Missoula and they reached out to partner with us. They create a specific batch of cider called the Great Bear Community Cider out of it.”
Donahue says the benefits are two-fold: removing the fruit protects humans and bears, but it also makes use of a food source that might have gone to waste.
Haines residents who need assistance harvesting fruit from their trees can contact the Haines Borough Public Library or email education@haineslibrary.org.
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July 24, 2020 at 01:05AM
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Volunteers offer to pick fruit for free to avoid attracting bears - KHNS Radio
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