Published
Island Park is inside the grizzly range, and the count is 1,055. The garbage goes on the site plan.
The bears are counted every year, and the count is going up
Island Park sits inside the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem's grizzly range, and the range is not an abstraction. The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, whose job is to count them, put the population at an estimated 1,055 bears in 2025, up from a few hundred at the low point and from 1,050 the year before. Its director's phrase for the state of the recovery, reported in May 2026, was that it has “come to a plateau in terms of occupied range” — which means the bears are where they are going to be, and one of the places they are is here.
Idaho Fish and Game said the same thing about this town directly in June 2025: Island Park is bear country, and the neighbourhoods and cabin sites are surrounded by national forest in grizzly and black bear habitat. For a visitor that is a reason to carry spray. For somebody building a cabin it is a design brief, and the county has already written the first line of it.
“Solid waste shall be stored in an enclosed building or in bear-proof containers and handled in a manner that does not attract bears, rodents, flies, or other animals; generate odors perceptible beyond the property line or liquid runoff; or permit the blowing of paper and other lightweight waste.”
— Fremont County Development Code, 2011 Edition (Ordinance 2011-04), section 5.21.040, Nuisances. Consolidated through Ordinance 2026-03. Checked against the county's live PDF 2 September 2026
That is a county performance standard, so it is written for applications rather than for households. Read it as a builder anyway: the garbage has a place on the site plan, and the place is either inside a building or inside a certified container. A bin on the porch is neither.
On the forest side of your line, storage is federal law
Most Island Park lots touch, or nearly touch, the Caribou-Targhee, and on that ground the rule is not a recommendation. The forest's Food Storage Order covers the Ashton/Island Park Ranger District and runs every year from 1 March to 1 December. It was signed in June 2023 and stands until December 2028.
| The order | What it says | What it means beside your lot |
|---|---|---|
| Where and when | All national forest land in the Teton Basin, Ashton/Island Park and Dubois districts, 1 March to 1 December | Nine months of the year, the ground past your line is under it |
| What counts | Food for people or animals, refuse, and anything that smells of food — drink containers, hygiene products, hay with additives | A cooler, a dog bowl and a bag of horse feed all count |
| Lawful storage, option one | Attended by an awake, alert person within 100 feet and in line of sight | Not while you sleep, not while you fish |
| Option two | Hung at least 10 feet up and 4 feet out from any supporting tree or pole | The camping method; it does not work for a cabin |
| Option three | In a container on the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee's certified bear-resistant list | The only method that fits a driveway |
| Penalty | A Class B misdemeanor: up to $5,000 for a person, $10,000 for an organisation, and up to six months | Your guests camping past the line are the ones exposed |
The order binds people on forest land, which for an owner means two groups: anyone from the cabin who camps, hunts or picnics past the boundary, and the dispersed campers who may be a hundred feet from your line in July — whose fourteen-day rules that page sets out. A rental guest who does not know the order is the person most likely to meet it.
The list Fish and Game gives Island Park residents
Fish and Game's advice to this town is short, specific and worth designing to rather than remembering later:
- Take bird feeders down between April and mid-November, which is the whole season a cabin is used.
- Use a certified bear-resistant trash can, and use it properly: latched, never propped open, never overfilled.
- Feed pets inside, and keep the food inside.
- Keep coolers, refrigerators and freezers indoors, not on the deck or in an open carport.
- Know that fruit trees are an attractant before planting one.
The reason the advice is blunt is on the record. In May 2022 five grizzly bears were euthanized in Island Park, and a black bear the following month, after they became conditioned to unsecured garbage. That September a proposal to require bear-resistant garbage containers across Island Park went before the county commissioners. This page could not confirm on 2 September 2026 whether that proposal became an ordinance, so it does not say it did; the honest instruction is to ask the county which container rule binds a lot before buying the cans. The code's section 5.21.040 applies regardless.
What it changes about the build
None of this is a reason not to build here, and every long-time owner has already solved it. The point is to solve it on paper, where it costs nothing, rather than after the first visit from a sow with cubs.
- Put the garbage on the site plan. An enclosed bin structure or a certified container has a location, a hard-surfaced approach for the hauler, and a door the bear cannot work. A small detached enclosure may not need a permit, with conditions that page sets out.
- Give the second freezer a room. The chest freezer that lives in a carport in the valley lives inside here, and the plan needs the wall space and the circuit.
- Write the crew a rule for the build. Lunch coolers, food wrappers and a site dumpster in June are exactly what the order and the code describe, and the site is a bear's problem before it is yours.
- Write the guest a rule for the rental. Renting is legal and the county cannot license it, which makes the printed instructions by the bin the only enforcement there is.
- Choose plantings and feeders with the list in hand, and choose the dog run with the same list. The wildlife that uses open water in winter is a separate subject with its own page; bears are a summer and autumn subject, and they are the one that gets bears killed.
A count of 1,055 is a success story, and it is one Island Park lives inside rather than reads about. The permit path does not ask about any of this. The ground does.
Common questions
How many grizzly bears are in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem?
An estimated 1,055 in 2025, according to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team's director as reported in May 2026, up from 1,050 in 2024 and from a few hundred at the low point. The team describes the recovery as having plateaued in occupied range, and Island Park is inside that range.
Are there grizzlies in Island Park neighbourhoods?
Yes. Idaho Fish and Game stated in June 2025 that Island Park is bear country and that its neighbourhoods and cabin sites are surrounded by national forest in grizzly and black bear habitat.
What is the Forest Service food storage order?
Order 04-15-23-217, in effect from 1 March to 1 December each year on all national forest land in the Teton Basin, Ashton/Island Park and Dubois Ranger Districts, signed in June 2023 and running through December 2028. It requires food, refuse and anything that smells of food to be attended, hung, or kept in a certified bear-resistant container.
What does the order count as food?
Food for human or animal consumption, refuse, and items that may have remnants or smell like food, including beverage containers, personal hygiene products, and hay or hay cubes with additives.
What is the penalty for violating the food storage order?
A Class B misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $5,000 for an individual or $10,000 for an organisation, and or up to six months' imprisonment. It applies on forest land, so guests who camp or hunt past a lot's boundary are the people exposed.
Does Fremont County require bear-proof garbage containers?
The county's Development Code, at section 5.21.040, requires solid waste to be stored in an enclosed building or in bear-proof containers and handled so it does not attract bears. A separate ordinance requiring bear-resistant containers across Island Park was proposed to the commissioners in September 2022; this page could not confirm on 2 September 2026 whether it was adopted, so ask the county.
What does Fish and Game tell Island Park residents to do?
Remove bird feeders between April and mid-November, use a certified bear-resistant trash can properly, feed pets inside, keep coolers, refrigerators and freezers indoors, and treat fruit trees as an attractant.
Why were grizzlies killed in Island Park?
In May 2022 five grizzly bears were euthanized in Island Park, and a black bear in June 2022, after they became food-conditioned by unsecured garbage. That episode is why the container proposal went to the county that September.
How does bear country change a cabin design?
The garbage gets a place on the site plan, either an enclosed structure or a certified container with hauler access; the second freezer moves indoors with its own wall space and circuit; and the build itself needs a crew rule for food and site waste.
Do I need a permit for a bear-proof garbage enclosure?
A small detached structure may be exempt from the county building permit under conditions set out on this site's page about the 200-square-foot rule, but the enclosure still has to satisfy the code's solid waste standard and any covenants on the lot.