TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (The News Service of Florida) - Local governments have until August 1 to apply for grants, intended to reduce interactions between people and bears.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is making $500,000 in grants available for communities, with a preference going to those that have enacted, what they call, "BearWise" ordinances, requiring residents and businesses to bear-proof trash containers.
The money, in part, is generated through the sale of "Conserve Wildlife" license plates.
In 2015, FWC held the state's first bear hunt in more than two decades, with 304 bears killed.
The commission has declined to hold another hunt, with the state instead providing the grants to try to prevent potentially dangerous encounters between humans and bears.
"It allows whole communities to participate. When it's a community-wide effort, when almost everybody is doing the right thing by keeping their trash secure, the bears don't have a reason to even enter the neighborhood," said David Telesco, FWC Bear Management Program Coordinator.
FWC says the "BearWise" program has been used to purchase more than 10,000 bear-resistant trash cans, 97 hundred sets of hardware to secure regular trash cans, and 160 dumpsters have been modified to keep bears out.
