Columbia Cascades

Most natural areas in the Pacific Northwest are inhabited by black bears. The northern Cascade Range is also home to a sparse population of grizzly bears.

Although unlikely, you may encounter bears in several of the national parks in the Northwest. Most bears tend to avoid people. In most cases, if you give a bear the opportunity to do the right thing, it will. Take the precautions described to help ensure that your visit to this wild and beautiful area is safe and enjoyable. These precautions will also help achieve a fundamental goal of the National Park Service: To keep the wildlife in the national parks wild and neither attracted to nor dependant on people.

Bears are curious, intelligent and potentially dangerous animals, but undue fear of bears can endanger both bears and people. Many bears are killed each year by people who are afraid of them. Respecting bears and learning proper behavior in their territory will help so that if you encounter a bear, neither of you will suffer from the experience.

When visiting any of the national parks, remember that for a little while you are sharing a place which is home to bears. Both need your understanding and protection. Most people who see a bear in the wild consider it the highlight of their trip. The presense of these majestic creatures is a reminder of how priviledged we are to share some of the country's dwindling wilderness. You can do your part and also reduce your risk by taking the measures described in this page.

Please report all bear sightings to a park ranger. Note the location of the sighting, length of observation, distance from the bear, and description of the bear and its activity or behavior.

Hiking in Bear Country

Most trails in wildland parks are in bear habitat. You could encounter a bear even on a short hike. Bears are individuals, each behaving differently in different circumstances. There are no precise rules about what to do if you encounter a bear, but there are generally effective measures to be followed.

• Bears don't like surprises! Avoid startling a bear. Where sight distance is limited or flowing water is muffling sounds, make noise by talking, singing, shouting, or clapping your hands. Do not make shrill or high pitch noises as these may attract bears. Some hikers use bells for noise.
  
  
• Do not come between a bear and her cubs! Bears are extremely protective of their offspring.
  
  
• Always stay alert to your surroundings. Be especially wary in places where there is food favored by bears; for example, berries or carcasses of large animals. If you smell a dead animal, do not investigate! Leave the area and inform a ranger.
  
  
• Avoid thick brush and be watchful when traveling off trail. If you can't avoid travelling through brush, try to walk with the wind at your back so your scent will warn bears of your presense. Bears rest and sleep in day beds, such as a depression next to a log, under the roots of a fallen tree, or in dense brush, or out in a grassy meadow.
  
  
• It is best to not hike alone. A bear is less likely to approach groups of people.
  
  
• Be especially alert if hiking around dawn or dusk. Bears can be active at any time of the day or night but are more often encountered at those times, and bears that are trying to avoid people may be more active when fewer people are out.
  
  
• If you are hiking with children, make sure they stay with you at all times.
  
  
• If dogs are permitted where you are hiking, keep yours on a leash and under your control. Loose dogs disturb wildlife and may lead a bear back to you.
  
  
• Bears, like humans, use trails. Avoid setting up camp close to a trail they might use.

Camping, Food and Bears

The care of food around bears is such an important topic, it deserves its own, seperate discussion. Bears do not naturally associate people with food, but they are opportunistic feeders. A bear is always looking for something to eat! A bear drawn to a camp by the smell of buried food scraps or garbage in a fire pit may discover containers of food on a picnic table and learn that campgrounds and campsites provide easy meals. The bear will remember this lesson for the rest of its life and pass the knowledge on to its young. A bear may seek food at camps aggressively and repeatedly over a long period. Bears who demonstrate this behavior have to be killed.

By following basic precautions of proper food storage and camp cleanliness, campers can minimize encounters with bears. The following suggestions and instructions apply to anyone camping in the North Cascades. Anywhere you travel in the Cascades is bear country. After reading the next section, please refer to the pages that pertain to your activities in the park for additional information on safety in bear country, whether you are camping in the front country, boating, traveling with pack animals, or backpacking.

Keep a Clean Camp

• Bears are not the only animals that are readily attracted by people's food that are potentially dangerous to you and your equipment and supplies. Rodents gnaw through packs, ravens peck plastic bags open, and deer strike with their hooves, all in search of an easy meal. Taking a few precautions will help protect you and your belongings and will help keep wildlife truly wild.
  
  
• Please note that, in most parks, failure to store food properly or maintain a clean camp can lead to a citation.

Store Food and Food-Related Equipment Properly

• If available, use animal-resistant, food storage boxes at campgrounds equipped with them. Never leave food or trash in these boxes when you move on.
  
  
• Bear-resistant canisters are available commercially and will keep out rodents as well as bears. Contact the park for the addresses of vendors. Hang the canister in a tree at least 100 yards (90 meters) downwind of your tent or, if a tree is not available, tie it to a rock or log to keep the canister from rolling away.
  
  
• Take at least 50 feet (15 meters) of rope or parachute cord on backcountry or boating trips. If your campsite lacks a food storage box, place your food, cooking gear, and toiletries in a bag. Choose a tree at least 100 yards (90 meters) from your tent, if possible, and downwind. You want the food bag to be visible from a distance as you approach. Suspend the bag from a limb of the tree so that it is at least 10 feet (3 meters) from the ground and 4 feet (1.2 meters) from the trunk.
  
  
• Plastic-coated dry bags are best for hanging food because they help seal in odors and are less easily chewed by rodents. Nylon stuff sacks and garbage bags lack these properties.
  
  
• Avoid contaminating sleeping gear with food odors; do not use sleeping bag stuff sacks, tent sacks, or clothing bags for food storage.
  
  
• Never, ever keep any food, or anything that held food, in your tent.

Camp Sanitation

• Strive for a clean camp free of odors. Bears and other animals are attracted to the smell of cooking and food waste. Avoid cooking fragrant foods like meat and fish.
  
  
• Never cook or eat in your tent.



• Hang and store garbage along with your food and toiletries, as described under Food Storage. Do not burn trash or garbage. Doing so may leave odors and remnant bits of food that attract wildlife. If food falls in to the firepit when cooking, make sure it is burned to ash. Do not dispose of garbage in the toilet.
  
  
• Wash your dishes right after you eat. Keep soap out of lakes and streams. Even biodegradable soap will contaminate fresh water. Collect all gray water and dump it in the campground vault toilet, pit toilet, or camper sink.
  
  
• Do not sleep in clothes that have food odors. It is best to sleep in clothes other than the ones that you cooked and ate in. Clothes with food odors should be hung like the food. Sleeping in a tent is safer than sleeping without one.
  
  
• If you fish or hunt and then camp, store your game, meat, and fish as carefully as you store your food. After puncturing air bladders, drop fish entrails in deep water at least 200 feet from docks and swimming areas. If possible at least 100 feet from shore to allow natural composition. Do not dispose fish entrails in a toilet.

Other Precautions

• Urine odors attract wildlife. Please use toilets where they are available. Otherwise, urinate on rocks, snow, or bare ground.
  
  
• Choose another camping area if you find a dead animal anywhere in the vicinity.

If You Encounter a Bear

• If you see a bear, avoid it if you can. Give the bear every opportunity to avoid you. If you encounter a bear at close range, remain calm. Attacks are rare. Chances are, you're not in danger. Bears are curious and may want to check you out. Generally, if you just stand your ground, talking to help ensure that it knows you are a person, the bear will soon leave.
  
  
• Give bears plenty of room. Some bears are more tolerant than others, but every bear has a "personal space" -- the distance within which a bear feels threatened. If you see a bear, do not approach it to take a photograph or for any other reason. If the bear has not seen you, calmly leave the area while talking aloud to make it aware you are there and are moving away. Most bears will leave when they see or hear you.
  
  
• If you cannot change your route to avoid a bear, try shaking leafy branches (don't break them off trees or shrubs), snapping small downed limbs with your feet, and talking in a loud but low tone. Bears often communicate their discomfort at being too close to one another by snapping small branches. You may need to do these things repeatedly before they have any effect.
  
  
• You may try to back away slowly diagonally, but if the bear follows, stop and hold your ground.
  
  
• A bear stands up to better identify what you are, not to threaten you. Help it identify you as a person by speaking softly to it.
  
  
• If a bear approaches you, do not scream or run or make sudden motions. As with a dog, running can elicit a chase response. You cannot outrun a bear, and screaming may escalate the danger of the situation. Instead, let the bear know you're human. Talk to it in a normal voice. Slowly wave your arms. Help the bear recognize you.
  
  
• Bears often make bluff charges, sometimes to within ten feet, without making contact. Continue moving your arms and talking to the bear.
  
  
• Bear repellants (such as pepper spray), even when effective, only work at such close range that depending on them could endanger you. Air horns are unproven in their effectiveness. High-pitched noises can arouse curiosity or irritate a bear.
  
  
• If a bear approaches you very quickly, drop a hat or a bandanna (but not your pack or anything else associated with food) and move away without running. The bear may stop to examine what you have dropped, distracting it from you.
  
  
• Never imitate bear sounds.
  
  
• Most attacks involve bears that have learned to associate human presence with the availability of food, or defensive responses by females with cubs that are encountered by surprise. However, every instance is different, and what works best cannot be known with certainty in advance.
  
  
• If you are attacked by a black bear, fight back with rocks, sticks, equipment, or your bare hands if nothing else is available. Aim for the bear's eyes or nose.
  
  
• People have weathered grizzly attacks by dropping into a "fetal" position with neck and face between the knees with your hands over the back of your neck, or by lying flat on the ground on your stomach with hands link behind your neck.
  
  
• Typically, a bear will break off its attack once it feels the threat has beem eliminated. Remain motionless for as long as possible; if you move, and the bear sees or hears you, it may return and renew its attack.

Every encounter with a bear is different because bears, like people, differ from each other.

If Your Campsite is Visitied by a Bear

• If a bear comes to a frontcountry campsite, contact a ranger. If you are at a backcountry site and no ranger is nearby, do not approach it but try to make it leave by shouting, shaking branches, or banging pots and pans. A bear accustomed to campground food may not easily be discouraged. If a bear persistently returns to a campground, move to another campground and notify a ranger.

Thoughts on Grizzly and Black Bears

Black bears and grizzly bears can be difficult to tell apart. Size and color are not distinguishing characteristics. Both species vary greatly in the color of their coats: Black bears are not always black, and grizzly bears are sometimes black and not always grizzled. This can make it very difficult to distinguish between the two.

Black bears and grizzly bears have many things in common. Both sleep through the winter. Both are powerful, fast, and protective of their young. Both species are poached for illegal sale on the black market.

Both bears eat a variety of foods, most of them plants. Both have good eyesight and an excellent sense of smell; they can detect scents from miles away. Through the course of a year, both bears use a wide variety of habitats, from low valleys to high meadows. Both are highly intelligent and individualistic. Both bears learn quickly how to get food and garbage from people, a habit very difficult to break.

There are differences between black bears and grizzly bears, too. Grizzlies grow larger than black bears, and, as adults, are not the agile tree-climbers that black bears are. Though not always a definitive characteristic, grizzlies tend to have a concave rather than straight facial profile. Grizzlies a muscular shoulder hump, and longer claws adapted for digging, which they do vigorously. Tracks can also be used to distinguish between the two bears. Grizzly bears can be more aggressively protective of their young and their food than black bears, though you should be very careful in the presence of either.

In 1975 grizzly bears were designated a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act. It is illegal to hunt grizzly bears in any national park. Black bears can be hunted in certain designated areas of National Recreation Areas. Check with the park for specific regulations.

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