Bearproof Boxes Let Campers Store Food Safely At Upper Priest

The Idaho Panhandle National Forest is hoping to prevent a bear problem that doesn’t yet exist at Upper Priest Lake.

Crews have installed bearproof storage boxes at four campgrounds surrounding the lake.

Campers are asked to use the sturdy plastic containers to store food, clothes used for cooking and anything else that might attract bears.

The forests, mountains and meadows surrounding the lake are home to healthy numbers of black bears. More importantly, the lake sits amid one of the last remaining places in the Lower 48 where grizzly bears still roam.

“It’s grizzly bear habitat and the bears can wander through there any time,” said Debbie Wilkins, recreation planner for the Priest Lake Ranger Station.

Grizzlies that get used to finding food at campgrounds often lose their fear of humans and become aggressive. On rare occasions, they attack campers; more often, biologists shoot the bears before a human is hurt.

So far, there have been no reported conflicts between campers and grizzlies at Upper Priest, said Wilkins. The boxes are an effort to make sure that doesn’t change, and might solve another problem that sometimes is reported: That of dogs from one campsite stealing food from another.

The boxes, which are anchored in concrete, are about the size of a kitchen stove - large enough to hold the biggest ice chest. The lids clamp shut.

The Forest Service installed two boxes each at the Plowboy and Trapper campgrounds; one each at Navigation and Geisinger campgrounds. They are well away from areas where campers normally pitch tents.

Campers who stay at unofficial campsites around the lake should hang their food from trees, Wilkins said.