BY KAREN BOSSICK
Children and adults are invited to a very bear-y presentation today designed to show how to keep Goldilocks and the three bears safe.
Lara Antonello, bear food storage coordinator for the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, will hold a half-hour outside workshop for children on bear safety at 9:30 a.m. today—Thursday, July 29--on the Community Library’s Donaldson Robb Family Lawn on 4th Street.
She will talk about how to keep your campsite clean and safe and how to safely use bear spray when needed.
It might be a good thing for anyone to learn as a Parma, Idaho, woman was fined $5,800 this week for leaving trash out that attracted a grizzly bear to her campsite in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. Officials warned the bear might have to be killed if it got a taste for raiding campsites due to this incident.
At 10 a.m. Antonello will discuss general bear safety in the backcountry and in our communities and how we can keep ourselves and our local bear population safe through effective food and trash storage from. Questions are welcome.
Antonello learned to love the natural world by wandering the woods and waters of Illinois where she grew up. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in wildlife biology with a minor in Mountain Studies form the University of Montana.
She has been a hiking guide with Sawtooth Mountain Guides since 2018, in addition to her work at the SNRA.