There have been many big, black bear sightings in Issaquah Highlands this spring. The most recent was Wednesday morning. Yet another Dahlia Park resident woke to find that their back yard gate had been ripped apart by a bear gaining access to their garbage cans, stored in the yard.
The IHCA adopted rules years ago that require us to store our garbage indoors. Outdoor storage invites bear invasions such as DP homes have lately suffered. Bears who get used to eating our garbage stored outdoors never leave us alone and tend to get more ambitious and aggressive, seeking out more opportunities. Our resident IHCA BOD members enacted the ban on outdoor storage so that we would not go the way of say, Lake Tahoe, whose homes are notorious for bear break-ins.
If you do not want to store your trash cans in your garage you can build or buy an enclosure for storing them. The designs below are IHCA Architecture Review Committee (ARC) pre-approved. You can get immediate ARC approval for your application (application required as a change to the exterior of your home) and there is no application fee.
No matter how you store your garbage, garbage pick-up on Fridays presents other hungry bear opportunities. The best plan is to place your garbage cans (carts) out at 7am. If you need to place them out before (rules allow placing them 12 hours in advance of pick-up), consider using wild-life resistant carts. Cleanscapes/Recology provides two options. See http://www.cleanscapes.com/issaquah/community/wildlife_resistant_carts/ for details.
