New trash ordinance aims to hinder garbage bears

Published 3:45 pm Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The Snoqualmie City Council unanimously approved adopting a new garbage disposal regulation, making unintentionally feeding wildlife through garbage negligence a misdemeanor.

If a bear has rifled through a homeowner’s trash, the revisions allow Snoqualmie Police to issue a warning requiring the resident to purchase a wildlife resistant container. Police can issue a $125 ticket on the second offense.

Waste Management, the city’s trash service provider, offers wildlife-resistant options for an additional monthly fee.

“We’re not going to be out patrolling the garbage, obviously. The whole idea is to mitigate bear-human interaction,” Police Chief Steve McCulley explained. “So, someone complains and says bears have gotten into your garbage and we respond. We give a warning and we give them education and information about how to avoid this.”

Councilwoman Chelley Patterson said, “If you put your garbage out and wildlife never get into it, then that’s not negligent feeding — even if that might be potentially feeding them.”

The council approved the changes after removing controversial amendments that would have required citizens to store their trash inside until garbage day.

Councilman Bryan Holloway argued against the amendments.

“I can’t carte-blanche require everybody to move their garbage inside and everybody to only have it out from 4:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. the day of,” he said. “I don’t want to hinder people putting their garbage out, I want to hinder the bear.”

Holloway also said this is something the city will have to keep an eye on because once the problem is addressed in one area, the bears might move on to the next.

Regardless, the council agreed this was the best place to start for the city.

“I think this is a big first step for us,” said councilman Charles Peterson “It’s not overkill, it’s logical and people will understand it. The Chief will have a tool to work with. I’d like to see us try this first.

McCulley agreed the amendment was a “good start.”

“We’re never going to go right out and arrest for an infraction; we have to ease into this.”