Opinion: We’re Taking the Bears’ Habitat, and They’re Taking Our Trash

By JOHN BOYLE, Asheville Watchdog

We’ve ordered the bear straps.

Not the kind where you strap a bear on your back and use the bear for security while walking downtown. That seems ill-advised. And made-up.

I’m talking about the bear straps you put on your big rolling trash bin. After getting hit twice in the past six months, we’re getting the kind that snap in place like a backpack or kid’s car seat.

We’ll see how it goes, but I figure it’s time to at least attempt to be a little smarter than the bears that keep tipping our can over and dining on its contents.

The last ursine transgression occurred Sunday a week ago when an adolescent bear roamed through my neighbor’s backyard, then climbed our mutual fence into my backyard, exiting by my trash and recycling cans.

My neighbor, Kristy Edwards, and her daughter Abby, caught the bear on video (above) as it casually strolled their yard and back porch, ambling through the furniture and giving everything a sniff. It was a little close for comfort.

“He was a bear-y unexpected guest!” Kristy Edwards told me via text. “I have concerns about safety, especially for pets and kids, but I admit that I love seeing them.”

Sure, Kristy, but then it had to go and make a mess in my yard, as bears will do. Yes, I’ve also had one poop in my yard, answering the age old question of, “Does a bear, ahem, poop in the woods?” No, actually. In my yard, thank you very much.

At any rate, it looks like bears are just everywhere, or at least we’re seeing them everywhere, including in our trash.

“It’s our fault for taking their habitat from them,” Edwards said. “We never saw them 30 years ago.”

Very true. Here in Fletcher where we live, I hadn’t seen a bear in our neighborhood until about three years ago. Now, judging by the number of times I see trash cans tipped over or hear about it from neighbors — or just see a bear roaming around or plopped in a neighbor’s yard — it’s a common occurrence.

We’ve also had two new subdivisions go up within less than two miles as the crow flies, wiping out about 150 acres of woods.

So they are hungry, have less natural habitat and are on the move. This seems to be the case all over the Asheville area.

I keep hearing and seeing bear stories, especially on social media  — bears trying to get in the house, bears on the deck, bears opening car doors, bears buying day-old baked goods at Liberty House Coffee. Oh wait, that last one was me on Friday.

Asheville resident Jenny Bradley shot a great video (below) the other day of a hefty bear rasslin’ with a bear-proof trash can on Robinhood Road in the Beaverdam area of north Asheville. The bear was unsuccessful, I might add.

Bradley, who lives in north Asheville, teaches piano in various locations around town.

“I drive through all the neighborhoods, and I just see bears at least every week,” she said, noting that she feels she is seeing more of late.

“I tell my kids to be careful,” Bradley said, noting they’re 14 and 16. “We try to keep just the classic rules — like not having food out.”

Bradley said at their house they don’t have a bear-proof bin, but they do employ straps that they tighten up on the can.

As I noted in a column last July, no fatal bear attacks have been recorded in western North Carolina, excluding federal jurisdictions such as the Blue Ridge Parkway or the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, according to the WRC.

In that column, Ashley Hobbs, a special projects biologist with WRC, told me that since 2009, there have been several confirmed injuries from interactions with black bears in Buncombe County.

“It is still rare, but it’s becoming more common in recent years,” Hobbs said, noting that the overwhelming majority of these incidents involved off-leash dogs and were defensive in nature, resulting in relatively minor injuries.

So keep your dogs leashed, and if at all possible, avoid interactions with bears.

Bear encounters were actually down some in 2025

While we all feel we’re overrun with bears, and sightings are commonplace, bear encounters are actually down, according to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

In 2025, the commission recorded 2,206 black bear calls, which covered observations of bears, human-bear interactions, and calls regarding health of bears.

That’s a “significant reduction from bear calls in 2024,” when they totaled 2,768, according to commission spokesperson Fairley Mahlum.

Nuisance/damage reports were also down, from 1,308 in 2024 to 946 last year, a 28% drop. Most of those reports come from Buncombe and Henderson counties, Mahlum said.

Most of those calls can be resolved, or maybe could’ve been presented, by following the commission’s six BearWise Basics:

• Never feed or approach bears.
• Secure food, garbage and recycling.
• Remove bird feeders when bears are active.
• Never leave pet food outdoors.
• Clean and store grills.
• Alert Neighbors to Bear Activity

We never feed bears, and we have removed our bird feeders and don’t leave pet food outdoors. We’re also really good about alerting neighbors about bear visitors.

But I clearly have not been securing my trash well, and I will note that by Sunday the can is pretty full. It starts to stink in the garage, so I do keep the big bin outside. Clearly, I’ve got to secure the can.

Also, I thought I was pretty good about cleaning the grill, but the last time I went out to cook up some chicken I found three week old salmon skins stuck to the rack. May as well pour honey in the backyard.

It’s really important to follow the BearWise recommendations because otherwise we’re all training bears to dine on our trash, pet feeders and bird feeders, and essentially just make themselves at home in our yards and on our porches. Bears learn from their parents where the easy food sources are.

“Yearlings separate from mom around 1.5 years old in May/June,” Mahlum said. “They will try to replicate whatever methods mom taught them to find food — dumpster diving, natural foraging, finding bird feeders, etc.”

This can lead to more and more interactions with humans. Sadly, when bears get aggressive with us, as mama bears with cubs or grumpy males will sometimes do, it’s the bears who get euthanized.

I told Mahlum that my pest control guy, who happened to be here for a regular termite/insect spraying, said sprinkling hot pepper powder on the trash will keep the bears out. I’ve heard other people suggest these remedies, as well as spraying ammonia-based cleaner on trash.

“Skip the pepper and add a lock to the existing cart or purchase a bear-resistant cart,” Mahlum told me.

Governments are issuing bear-proof cans, but not enough of them

The Town of Fletcher where I live does not distribute bear-proof cans, mainly because it’s cost-prohibitive, Town Manager Mark Biberdorf told me via email.

“The cans that we currently provide for residents are about $55,” he said. “A comparably sized bear-proof cart costs approximately $500.”

The town does periodically get calls about bear-proof garbage cans or carts, and it recommends people buy the straps, which you can get on Amazon or other outlets for about $25.

We paid about $15 for our. Let’s hope they work.

Those of you living in Asheville and Buncombe County have access to bear-resistant cans through the city or Buncombe County’s garbage contractor, FCC Environmental Services.

Since taking over the county contract in Buncombe in January 2025, FCC has delivered about 1,900 bear carts to customers who have requested them, according to the company. Residents who sign up for FCC service have the option to purchase or lease bear carts.

About 750 customers had bear carts they received from the county’s previous contractor, so the total of bear carts out there is 2,650. The bear carts cost $320 to buy, or customers can pay $10 a month to lease the cart.

“To be ready for customer requests, FCC has ordered more bear bins,” the company said.

Buncombe County is not planning to make bear carts standard issue due to cost and “the fact that there are many areas in the county that do not regularly have bear activity,” county spokesperson Johanna Cano noted.

The City of Asheville has issued about 2,500 bear-resistant carts, with 308 residents on the wait list, although “new residents are added to the waitlist each week,” according to city spokesperson Kim Miller.

“The city fills waitlist requests as funding allows for additional orders,” Miller said. “The cost per can varies due to market fluctuations but ranges from approximately $220 to $315, compared to $48 for a standard trash cart.”

The city charges a $10 a month up-charge for the use of a bear cart.

As you may recall, Asheville has a tight budget this year, and Miller noted that new bear carts will not be funded under the proposed budget “as part of the city’s cost-saving efforts to deliver a balanced budget.

“Our sanitation team is currently investigating several options to address the current waitlist,” Miller said. “Potential savings from the fiscal year 2026 budget might accommodate purchasing an additional 400 carts.”

In March of 2027, as the fiscal year cycle winds down, the city will evaluate whether it has the funding to buy more carts for those on the waitlist. Historically, Miller said, additional purchases “have occasionally been feasible,” she said.

Meanwhile, she said, follow the BearWise rules or consider composting food scraps through the city/county’s free food scrap drop off program. Find more information about that program here.

And here’s a fun captive bear tidbit from Miller:

“Our friends Uno and Ursa over at the WNC Nature Center have been a great help testing various carts and bear-resistant straps over the years,” Miller said. “They found that one private provider cart strap system passed their rigorous testing.”

You can find those straps at trashlockers.com

You have to buy them, but they can be used on standard trash cans. You have to unlock them on trash day, though.

“But it does offer protection throughout the week and reportedly works well for a number of our residents,” Miller said.

With at least 500-600 bears in the Asheville watershed, and possibly up to 1,000, according to the WRC, we’ve all got to get used to living with bears, in their habitat, really. We’ve got 8,000 to 9,000 black bears in western North Carolina, which includes the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Clearly, one of those keys to coexistence is getting smarter about my trash bin. I’ll let you know how the straps work — and if they send the bear back over to Kristy’s yard for a snack.

Asheville Watchdog welcomes thoughtful reader comments about this story, which has been republished on our Facebook page. Please submit your comments there.

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at [email protected]. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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Photo credit: unsplash