Bear conflicts in Jackson Hole have increased sharply this year, in part due to hot, dry weather that has bruins looking for food at lower elevations, Wyoming Game and Fish biologists say.

Grand Teton National Park also reports an increase in bear incidents, including one in which the bruin had to be killed after he broke into a kitchen at Jenny Lake.

While Jackson Hole saw 34 bear incidents during 2006, this year the region is poised to pass that threshold by mid-July, Wyoming Game and Fish bear biologist Leon Chartrand said. “We are definitely seeing more activity,” he said.

Game and Fish currently has several traps set up in the Jackson Hole area to catch problem bears. The offending animals will either be moved to a remote location in the woods or killed if they would likely continue to pose a threat to humans.

Subdivisions near Moose-Wilson Road, Teton Village, and the Aspens have seen the most conflicts, usually involving bears that get into garbage containers or bird feeders. So far, Chartrand reports few if any bear encounters that posed a danger to people.

The reason for the surge is partly due to a dearth of high-elevation foods such as berries.

“It’s super-dry and there was late snow at the end of June,” Chartrand said. “We didn’t have much of a berry crop this year. Bears are headed for wet areas, which are usually residential areas.”

Residential areas might represent an untapped resource of food, but bears visiting them come closer to humans. As bears become used to people, they begin to lose their fear, presenting a danger for both humans and animals.

Further, food in trash cans and bird feeders not only is easy to obtain, but also provides a lot of calories. Once a bear finds a good human food source, it is likely to return.

Combine the bear’s lack of fear with a hunger for garbage, and problems can proliferate.

Some people near public land boundaries haven’t taken enough precautions to keep bears out of human and pet food, said Melissa Harrison, executive direction of the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation.

“They are using containers that are easy to get into, overfilling cans and setting them out overnight,” she said. The recent heat makes the garbage ripe and, therefore, more enticing for a hungry bear.

To help with the problem, Harrison, Game and Fish, and Bearwise Jackson Hole have partnered with the Teton Conservation District and the Teton Village Improvement District to provide 220 certified bear-proof containers for people who live in bear country. The group is trying to raise funds for another bulk order.

“We started out in Teton Village because that’s where a lot of the problems are,” Harrison said.

While the new containers are not compatible with garbage trucks that automatically load trash, Westbank Sanitation owner Jeff Brewster not only said his company would load the trash by hand, but also contributed money towards the effort.

The push for bear-proof containers and community education comes as grizzly bears begin to press farther into Grand Teton National Park. Some grizzlies have even found their way as far south as Teton Village, just beyond the park’s southern boundary. Making the community bear-safe before the larger, more aggressive grizzlies gain a foothold could help prevent more serious conflicts in the future.

“Grand Teton National Park is now considering all of the park grizzly bear territory,” Chartrand said. “Bears don’t recognize boundaries. We get a lot of park bears in Teton Village.”

One problem, says Chartrand, is that some people who own homes near bears live there only part of the year and simply don’t know enough about bear safety. Some even feed bears outright.

While bears that venture into housing developments might seem desperate for a good meal, Wyoming Game and Fish spokesman Mark Gocke says that feeding bears human food is not only unnecessary, but also likely a death sentence.

“They’ll find something to eat,” he said. “It’s just not as good as garbage.”

Chartrand agreed.

“In no way does feeding help bears,” he said. “They’re just asking for trouble and putting their neighbors in danger,” he said of those

Further, Chartrand said that people who don’t report bear incidents for fear of getting the animals captured or shot by the Game and Fish department are actually allowing the bear to get into worse trouble in the future.

“If they think the problem is going away, they are fooling themselves,” he said. “You’re more apt to be sealing that bear’s fate.”

If the weather trend continues, bears seeking to pack on pounds for hibernation this coming winter could become even more likely to venture close to humans looking for calories. In Yellowstone, biologists are expecting a low whitebark pine harvest, and bear foods in Grand Teton will also likely be in short supply.

“Usually it just progresses as the summer goes on,” said Mark Gocke, spokesman for Wyoming Game and Fish. “We’re seeing August conditions now. We’re expecting an increase in conflicts when bears start packing it on.”

Grand Teton National Park has also seen increases in bear incidents, including a 150-pound black bear that the park had to kill after he broke into the kitchen of the Jenny Lake Lodge.

Colter Bay Campground, Gros Ventre Campground, and Signal Mountain Campground have also had bears successfully raid camps.

While the drought likely explains the increase in bear activity in part, Grand Teton spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said humans are mostly to blame for the bears’ misbehavior.

“We’ve had food storage violations in almost every campground in the park regardless of our stepped-up be bear-aware campaign, which is discouraging,” she said.

The 150-pound black bear, for example, became “extraordinarily bold” after a number of incidents where he became food-conditioned and habituated to people. Prior to his romp through the kitchen at Jenny Lake, the bear tore into an empty tent, scratched on an occupied tent and snatched a food bag at a backcountry camp site on Leigh Lake.

According to Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash, bears in the park have caused few problems so far this year.

The Defenders of Wildlife Web site offers information on how to avoid bear conflicts. Go to www.defenders.org/wildlife/bears/bearcountrybook.html.