KODIAK — High school students in Kodiak are working to help wildlife and the community with a project to turn regular trash bins into ones that are bear-resistant.
The project is a joint effort by the Kodiak Brown Bear Trust, Alaska Waste and Kodiak High School. Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Nate Svoboda had presented the groups with the idea in order to bring awareness to responsible waste management, The Kodiak Daily Mirror reported.
“It’s a community issue and so I thought it’d be more appropriate to have it be a community endeavor to get everyone on board, particularly the younger students,” Svoboda said. “Get them involved with this so they have a vested interest in it and can help us spread the word about being responsible with waste management.”
The Kodiak Brown Bear Trust provided the welding and art students with $1,000 for supplies.
“One of our pillars is outreach and education, anything to do with bears,” said trust chairman Paul Chervenak. “It’s pretty important for a lot of the outlying areas around town to have bear proof Dumpsters and also to spread the message, and I think these will be very effective.”
The students added aluminum lids to the trash bins along with attachments to keep the lids closed, making it difficult for bears to get in to. They finished up the project by decorating the outside of the bins with messaging about bears.
“We tried to make them as sturdy as possible, because they are Dumpsters and they are outside in the weather and we need them to be pretty strong,” said junior Scott Larionoff. “We created the lids, measured the metal and cut it out, and then welded it together.”
Senior Jennifer Menjivar said the project will have an impact on the community and shows “that we do care about what goes on in the environment.”
Alaska Waste does not yet know where the newly designed trash bins will be placed, said lead driver James Zurflueh, but the goal is to put them on display at Kodiak’s Crab Festival.
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Information from: Kodiak (Alaska) Daily Mirror, http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com
