RONAN - Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Fish and Game bear biologist Stacy Courville doesn't get much sleep these days. Tribal dispatch, he said, has been calling him at all hours of the night because one particularly persistent, nutritionally-stressed grizzly sow with two young cubs has been frequenting chicken coops near Ronan, east of Highway 93, and eluding capture.

"We have traps and snares set at two different locations east of Ronan," he said. "She came back and hit our bait [Monday] night, but did not get captured."

Due largely to the extended cool, wet spring weather, CSKT Natural Resources Department's Information and Education specialist Germaine White said that because there has been so little natural food available for bears, many are nutritionally stressed and seeking human food instead.

"That's a problem for bears," she said. "It's already August, and they're struggling."

Chief of tribal game wardens, Pablo Espinoza said relocating or eliminating bears is not effective in solving bear problems.

"A bear very quickly becomes habituated to human food," he said. "We need to eliminate attractants because a fed bear is a dead bear and they will continue to become more aggressive in their search for food."

Courville is working closely with the Ronan community in order to eliminate attractants and solve problems with local land owners to ensure there are not human-bear conflicts.

"The chicken coops were in bear habitat, unprotected," he said. "Most of the folks have put up electric fences since."

According to White, electric fences have been very effective, as well as eliminating attractants like garbage, animal seed, unsecured small livestock, like chickens, goats and pigs.

"Because it's been such a challenging spring and summer with bears, we're looking forward to fall when more fruit will be available to them," she said. "We want to remind homeowners to pick their fruit, don't leave it on the ground because that also attracts bears."

Courville said he hopes the human-bear conflicts will decrease as more natural food becomes available.

"It seems like we're two or three weeks behind normal schedule," he said. "[From] the scats she's leaving, [we know] they're eating berries now and the bears we've handled have been in good shape."

If you spot a bear or have a bear problem, contact tribal dispatch at 675-4700, even after hours. If you can positively identify a grizzly bear, relay that information to the dispatcher so they can respond accordingly.