Hey there,

You're not the problem here, honestly. People do feel pretty strongly about the subject, but it's a good question you ask, if only because it's an honest one - for me in California it's a big hot button because of the huge problems we have with bears in certain areas and no one can agree what to do about it.

There's the ultralight crowd who want to hike the length of the Sierra Nevada storing their food in their tent. There's the legion of bears in Yosemite that have been trained *for generations* by people to expect handouts from people - look up on youtube the old promos of Yosemite from the 40s, in black and white, showing people shoveling food in the mouths of a long line of black bears who stand and wait for the goodies - the whole movement to let bears be wild is fairly recent. There's the bear in Rae Lakes, in Kings Canyon, that can pop lids off BearVaults. Once bears get a taste for that lovely high calorie people food it's all over for them. And yet, here in my hometown, people ignorant of this will go to Yosemite and leave food under a rock because they don't want to carry a *big heavy bear can* - Yosemite won't give you a backpacking permit without a bear can! the folks leave it in the trunk of the car. And the people lose their food, and the ranger issues a fine, and the bear is one step closer to being shot, skinned, chopped up and sent to a university to be studied. Because if the bear stops simply being assertive in seeking food and starts being aggressive, that's what happens to them. Bears die in Yosemite because of people's lazy ways. They also cause thousands of dollars of property damage breaking into cars for the french fries kids leave under the seats. The cost to the park for all the bear proof lockers and trash bins must be huge.

All that could have been avoided, and in other parks, it should be avoided with proper food storage practices. It truly angers me when people show up for my hiking group outings in Yosemite and have a blase attitude about this - it's just one symptom of a larger problem that will eventually destroy the natural wildernesses.

But I'm not angry at you for asking the question. I'm glad you did. It shows you had some amount of concern. Others wouldn't ask, they'd just go out and let a bear have their food.