For Restaurants
With food deliveries, leftover grease, food scraps, and other garbage, restaurants run the risk of attracting bears. Ensuring that these attractants are properly secured will keep restaurant staff and patrons stay safe, as well as bears that may come through the area.
As a restaurant manager, there are a number of steps you and your staff can take to prevent human-bear conflicts:
Store garbage in a secure, hard-sided building, or if kept outside, in a bear-resistant dumpster or other container/box. Bear-resistant dumpsters may be available from your local waste management company.
Deposit paper and packaging that has been in contact with food or drinks in a bear-resistant garbage receptacle or inside a secure building.
Use a bear-resistant container to deposit used fryer oil, and ensure the receptacle is in proper working order, is locked after use, and that any spills are promptly cleaned up. Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee has certified grease containers and other bear-resistant containers that can be used to store grease securely. If a container is outside, it should be bolted to a cement pad or secured in a way so that a bear can’t tip it over.
Ensure all food deliveries are met by a staff member, not left outside unattended, and promptly put away.
Resources and materials
Take a look at the following materials to use when training staff on how to prevent human-bear conflicts.
For managers:
For staff:
People and Carnivores offers a restaurant bear safety kit, which includes a poster, manager and staff manuals, and a weekly checklist of bear safe practices. You can take a look at it here; depending on your location, P&C may be able to send you a kit.
Note: The Get Bear Smart Society previously ran the Bear Smart Restaurant Program in Whistler; GBS ceased operations in early 2023. If you are looking for any information previously shared about the program, please contact us.