Why didn DEC educate hikers and campers on proper food storage?
Bears in the EHPZ had learned through association and repetition how to defeat traditional methods of keeping food secure. The volume of camping activity in the EHPZ gives bears many opportunities to obtain food from campers. Methods that may have worked in other areas where hiker/camper use is much less were no longer working in the EHPZ. DEC and its partners had conducted education outreach programs for many years on how to keep food secure from bears, but that education effort has shifted to a focus on the use of bear-resistant canisters as the most reliable and consistent method of keeping food from bears in the EHPZ.
