The Wildlife Commission has received applications from 10 communities for $515,283 in BearWise funding to help reduce human-bear conflicts.
“Feeding on garbage is the main reason why Florida black bears appear in neighborhoods,” according to David Telesco, who leads the Bear Management Program. “This funding will make it easier for people to secure their trash, keeping both people and bears safe.”
The Florida Legislature approved $415,283 of the funds, and the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida will provide an additional $100,000 from sales of the Conserve Wildlife license plate communities that passed BearWise ordinances requiring residents and businesses to keep their trash secure until the morning of garbage pickup.
Last year, the FWC distributed over $800,000 in BearWise funding to 11 counties, three cities and one homeowner’s association to purchase 5,100 bear-resistant trash cans and 3,800 sets of hardware to secure regular trash cans. Over 75 percent of last year’s funding was provided to communities with BearWise ordinances.
Eight counties applied for BearWise funds, a total of $998,425 in requests. The FWC will evaluate the applications, prioritizing the communities with BearWise ordinances, and announce recipients in November.
The funding helps offset the costs for residents and businesses to acquire bear-resistant trash cans and dumpsters.
In addition to providing BearWise funding, the Wildlife Commission will continue to encourage local efforts to enact BearWise trash ordinances. Implementation of such ordinances coupled with this year’s BearWise funding is believe to result in a reduction in human-bear conflicts across the state.
For more information on black bears, including how to reduce conflicts with them, click here.