Petition to Allow Ursack in Yosemite and SEKI

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ciclista
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Re: The necessity of a bear canister

Post by ciclista »

Fly Guy Dave wrote:I have seen ursacks that have been extensively chewed on by a black bear and they did indeed hold up. However, the food was so crushed, slobbered on and absolutely inedible afterwards, it totally defeated the purpose.
It seems to me that trying to sell a product that allows the food to be destroyed by a bear is pointless at best, and disreputable and dangerous at worst. Even in Ursaks's own videos they show that using their method of tying the bag to a tree allows the bear to destroy the food inside (without actually eating it). It seems to me that if you can't secure the bag using the PCT hanging method, the product is nearly useless. So, in areas where hanging food is not allowed, or possible (e.g., above the treeline)... why would anyone want to rely on this product?

If I had to guess, I'd say that the manufacturer has a product that will work where there are no bears, or bears that can't climb trees, and the manufacturer is just trying to expand their market to a new area, even though the product isn't appropriate for that new area.
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freestone
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Re: Petition to Allow Ursack in Yosemite and SEKI

Post by freestone »

I am visualizing a Larson Far Side cartoon with 2 bears playing tetherball with one of these! :)

Let me add somemore meaningless information to this discussion... There were no reported Ursack failures on the 2014 JMT equipment failure list recently published. Nada.

More meaningful are the reports of pack and pack contents damaged by bears, including damaged sleeping bags. That's serious. No matter what your food is in, the threat to the bear remains, especially in Yosemite, because they are making a multitude of sensual associations that leads up to this type of behavior. I suspect in Yosemite, the mere sight of a human life form with a back bulge, or anything soft lying on the ground, including Ursacks, will get a bear salivating and become fair game. Protecting the bear needs to go way beyond how we carry our food, but as it is now.... I would not sign the petition because the Ursack does not have a designed shape that frustrates and is difficult for the bear to handle. The NPS knows they have a difficult bear protection problem, and allowing this product is not a meaningful step toward solving it.
Short cuts make long delays. JRR Tolkien
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ciclista
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Re: Petition to Allow Ursack in Yosemite and SEKI

Post by ciclista »

freestone wrote: Protecting the bear needs to go way beyond how we carry our food, but as it is now....
CA DFG allowed up to 1,700 bears to be "harvested" in 2014. I would not want to be responsible for a bear getting killed, but isn't it possible that someone in charge somewhere isn't concerned if a few more bears have to be killed each year because of their interactions with humans, and aren't those same people really only concerned that no people get hurt?

https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Hunting/Bear
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rlown
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Re: Petition to Allow Ursack in Yosemite and SEKI

Post by rlown »

apples and oranges comparison. Those who actually hunt bear (me) buy tags to do so. "A few more" is because they become problem bears because they become habituated. Those bears that habituate would be the camper and the backpackers fault. National Parks are managed separately from the CDFW for the most part.

CDFW adjusts that number every year based on population. They don't count the bears that are hit by cars in Yose or other places. It's about the hunting tag.

Orthogonal to the bag discussion, but ok..
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