The best guards against bears that I've seen have been the one's designed by
MT Fish and Wildlife working with beekeepers like Lance Sundberg, and a
different design that I saw last year in the Peace River area of Canada.
Lance has ~ 90 fenced beeyards in the mountains around Columbus.
In our dry climate, even weed zappers don't work well when the soil is dry,
vegetation brown. And fencing laid on the ground to improve grounding often
gets covered with dry vegetation that grows through it.
MT FW&P came up with a different approach. The yard is first fenced with
ranch panels. These can be bought at any Farm and Ranch Center. They are
welded steel panels, galvanized, designed to be used as quick to set up, rigid
panel, movable fences. Each panel is a grid of ~1/4 steel, often 16' long by
4-5' tall.
The innoative part is that the ranch panel is then grounded (hammer 10'
grounding rod into the ground, attach to the ranch panel). Next, a solar powered
electric fence is fastened to the outside of the ranch panel on plastic
standoffs ~ 5-7". When the bear approaches, he/she will try to climb over the
ranch panel. In doing so, paws and often nose contact the grounded ranch
panel, and the full zap from the fence is received, often to the head or belly.
This works so well that one trapped a grizzly. A railroad car tipped on a
curve near Glacier Park, spilling a pile of grain. FW&P quickly fenced the
pile of grain with one of these systems. A hungry grizzly eyed the situation,
ambled up an embankment above the pile of grain, took a running leap, and
landed inside the fence. Had a great meal, then couldn't get back out without
hitting the electric fence. FW&P found a very grumpy bear.
Now, the other grizzly proof (brown bear) fence was in Canada. Beekeeper
didn't trust electric fences. First installed heavy, 8' tall posts. Then
found a ~ 15' wide, heavy welded wire fence material. He mounted this to the
posts in a unique way. A strip along the bottom was bent out at 90 degrees,
laid flat on the ground, to prevent the bear from squeezing, digging under.
Then, the next 8 ft was securely fastened to the posts, and the remaining mesh
stood several feet above the posts, and was not fastened to anything. If a
bear tried to climb, he/she had easy climbing for the first 8 feet, then the
loose part of the mesh flexed outward, and the bear couldn't get over it, often
falling off. Beekeeper says he's never had a bear defeat this setup.
Both of these fence systems are top of the line in terms of reliably keeping
bears out AND unfortunately in price. But, should still be cheaper than a
reefer.
Jerry
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