Food Storage in the Sierra High Country
by: trailblazer

Regardless of your destination in the Sierra Nevada, food storage will be a vital part of your trip to protect the environment as well as to keep you from starving. Very simple precautions can protect your food from a variety of animals, the most notorious being the Black Bear. These precautions vary depending upon your location. In high use areas, vehicles with food inside get dismantled on a regular basis and leaving food in a tent is just asking for an addition of a skylight to the tent.

Frontcountry:

In the frontcountry, all scented items should be stored in bear proof lockers where provided. If bear proof lockers are not provided, food must be stored either within a building, or in a trunk or out of site within the vehicle.

Backcountry:

In the backcountry there are currently several regions withing the Sierra Nevada that REQUIRE food to be stored in approved containers (These areas very year by year and are dependent upon management agencies - for a thorough description of the rules and regulations in the area you plan on visiting, contact the management agency that governs the area.) Where bear proof containers are not required, food can be stored using the counterbalance hanging method or using available backcountry bear lockers (for a description of the counterbalance method, and a list of backcountry bear box locations in Sequoia and Kings Canyon, visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park bear management web page). Bear proof containers are always recommended by management agencies. Although there are many bear resistant containers available, only those approved by the Sierra Interagency Black Bear Group (SIBBG) are legal within required areas. SIBBG provides a list of currently approved containers.

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