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Project Title: Lake Moomaw Project
Conservation Initiatives Addressed: Bear Management and Conservation Education
Special Program: Adopt-a-Dumpster Program
Location: Lake Moomaw area of the George Washington National Forest in Alleghany County, VA
Collaborators: The Alleghany Foundation, US Forest Service, Virginia Inland Game and Fisheries, community education volunteers, and students from the local community college
Funders: Bear Trust International, The Alleghany Foundation, The US Forest Service
Project Duration: 2007-2009
Overview of the Lake Moomaw Project:
Bear Trust has collaborated with the US Forest Service and the Virginia Game and Inland Fisheries to develop the Adopt-a-Dumpster Program in the Lake Moomaw area of Virginia. This area hosts over 20,000 recreation visitors annually and has experienced a dangerously sharp increase in the number of nuisance bear incidents over the past six years. To protect both humans and bears, the need for wildlife-resistant containers in this area is significant.
This is an example of a regular dumpster with no bear-proof capability:
The US Forest Service began the installation of wildlife-resistant containers in the Lake Moomaw area during 2007, but was unable to complete the project due to severe budget constraints. The Adopt-a-Dumpster Program recognizes that rural communities and public land agencies frequently do not have the financial resources to purchase wildlife-resistant containers, even when nuisance incidents are significant and ongoing. Therefore, Bear Trust seeks to recruit sponsors from the private sector to help pay for the purchase of wildlife-resistant dumpsters for areas where wildlife, such as bears, are prone to take advantage of accumulated garbage—usually to their detriment.
As the relationship between Bear Trust and the US Forest Service has grown, Bear Trust discovered the need for an educational component of the Adopt-a-Dumpster Program. For the Program to fully succeed, visitors need to be educated about bear biology and human responsibility to properly store garbage. In addition, people in the community need to participate in the Program. Bear Trust is developing education material which will be made available to anyone via the Bear Trust website. The Forest Service personnel in the Lake Moomaw area have already enlisted volunteers from the community to learn the education material and teach it to visitors. In addition, the wildlife and forestry students at the Dabney S. Lancaster Community College have agreed to assist the Forest Service with the Adopt-a-Dumpster Program.
Lake Moomaw Project Benefits:
By installing wildlife-resistant dumpsters at the Lake Moomaw area, the Adopt-a-Dumpster Program will provide the following benefits and meet the following needs: 1) provide an immediate and permanent solution to scavenging wildlife, 2) provide safe recreational experiences for visitors by reducing the frequency of wildlife-human conflicts, 3) increase the probability of bear survival by decreasing the number of bears that become habituated to humans and garbage, 4) promote a sound wildlife management strategy, 5) foster community participation by involving education volunteers, students from the local community college, the US Forest Service, and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and, 6) provide education outreach.
Education:
Bear Trust is collaborating with education volunteers in the Lake Moomaw area to develop material to present to campground guests beginning summer 2008.
When education volunteers give presentations to children at the campgrounds, children will receive Bear Trust certificates acknowledging their successful completion of bear education training.
Project Update:
In late Spring 2008, Bear Trust will implement the first phase of the Lake Moomaw Project by installing five 4-yard wildlife-resistant dumpsters. Bear Trust is still in need of raising funds to complete the Lake Moomaw Project. Our target date for completion is Spring 2009.
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