Elk NetworkRMEF Funding Leads to Installation of Bear Food Boxes in Remote Wyoming Wilderness

General | February 4, 2021

Below is a news release from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Last summer, a team from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Shoshone National Forest and Wildlife Services worked together to install three new food storage boxes in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness.

In July, the team packed the dismantled boxes on mules and horses to Granite and Beauty Lakes on the Shoshone National Forest. Each box required a separate pack animal.

The boxes were assembled using nuts and bolts and placed at popular campsites to provide wilderness users an easy means to secure attractants unavailable to bears. Each box provides 11 cubic feet of storage for food and other attractants to minimize the potential of a bear receiving a food reward from a camp and becoming habituated to people. Special thanks to Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation who provided funding to purchase the boxes.

Photo information: from left to right:  Ben Acres, Wildlife Services non-lethal specialist, Dusty Lasseter, Game and Fish bear wise coordinator, Luke Ellsbury, Game and Fish large carnivore biologist and Jess Hicks, Shoshone National Forest assistant packer for the specialty pack string.

(Photo credit:  Wyoming Game and Fish Department)