Hello LRAA Members,

Every Spring we have a couple of black bears that roam around the community looking for food near the river and throughout the community. So far, they seem to leave people alone, but we do not want the bears to learn that they can get food here.  We are asking all members to do their part to keep the bears away. 

The dumpster is the first place we are asking for your help. The bears can push the sliding doors open.  Already this year they have made it into the dumpsters, where they have pulled garbage out looking for food.  To prevent this, we are locking the sliding doors from the inside, and we are asking that members use the side door to access the dumpsters.  If you need to use the sliders, you can unlock them and lock them back up when you are finished.  If you notice the sliders unlocked, please lock them. 

For now, we are not locking the side door, so no one needs to know the key code yet.  Eventually we will lock the side door as well to keep non-members from using our dumpsters, but now our priority is keeping the bears out.  We can safely assume that these bears do not have opposable thumbs and thus will not be able to turn the doorknob.

Please help us with this new procedure. We realize that this is a change to the way members are used to accessing the dumpsters, but we feel this is a small inconvenience to protect both the community and the bears.  If you have a better idea for keeping the bears out, please let us know.

Be BearWise around your property. You can also help by storing all garbage indoors at your own home/cabin, feeding your pets indoors, cleaning and covering your outdoor grills, and removing food from bird feeders until the bears move to higher ground. 

On a separate note, keep an eye on the website over the next week for 2022 budget information. In the coming days we will post the proposed 2022 budget along with an explanation of changes to the budget.  This budget will need to be approved by members at the upcoming membership meeting, which has been rescheduled to Labor Day weekend assuming public health circumstances allow. 

Thanks for your help.

Jef Rettmann
LRAA President

Be BearWise!

“When bears emerge from dens, their digestive systems are sluggish and may take a week or two to gradually normalize. Then, hunger hits hard, and despite eating Spring foods, such as grass, dandelions and tree cambium, their bodies slowly lose more and more fat reserves until WA berries start to ripen.”

For additional facts and (safety) tips for how to live responsibly with black bears, please visit BearWise.

The policy of the DF&W is NOT to capture and relocate bears. If a bear becomes a problem, they will euthanize it. As Sargent Christensen said, “a fed bear is a dead bear.”

If you encounter an actively aggressive bear call the Washington State Patrol at (509) 227-6650 and they will dispatch enforcement officers. Also contact the LRAA through the Contact Us form on our website.