Three winters ago, the family and I were headed to Paradise in Mount Rainier National Park for a little sledding fun.

As we drove up the road, we saw a fox walking along the top of the snowbank along the roadway.

I slowed down so our son and daughter could see the fox, and to snap a few photos. That’s when I noticed something orange sitting atop the snow. It was a Dorito. Someone had tossed them on the snow, and the fox was slowly munching away.

I drove off, shaking my head in amazement. Why would someone do that?

That’s the question Alyssa Herr asks each day. Herr is the park’s point person in the battle to get people to stop feeding wildlife.

Last year, she prepared the first brochure the park has produced to teach visitors about the dangers of feeding the animals.

Now Herr is looking for volunteers to take part in the parks’ first Keep Wildlife Wild Weekend, set for July 25.

“We have such a big issue and it’s becoming worse and worse,” Herr said. “In the past, the park hasn’t given it a lot of energy. We weren’t giving out citations, interpretive rangers weren’t really talking to people about it, we didn’t have signs.

“The problem is too big of an issue right now for the park not to do something about it.”

Last year was a good example. A black bear had to be trapped and harassed to stay away after learning it could find human food at Paradise. In one instance, a visitor left food on a windowsill at Paradise Inn. A fox believed to be accustomed to eating human food was walking along a road when it was hit by a car and killed.

“People were surrounding that bear in the (Paradise) parking lot. If that bear had gotten frightened, who knows what would have happened,” Herr said.

That’s why Herr is hoping people will respond to her call for volunteers to help spread a simple message on July 25: Don’t feed the wildlife.

Participants will hear from about:

 • Why wildlife feeding is dangerous to the animals.

 • Proper food storage.

 • Native wildlife species in the park.

 • How to approach park visitors and talk about the issue.

Volunteers will be assigned locations around the park where wildlife likely are to be fed by unknowing visitors. Participants will be asked to warn visitors and keep track of wildlife feeding or food-conditioned behavior, Herr said.

“I’ve really been using three words to describe the day: protection, education and observation,” Herr said.

“Protecting people by teaching them not to feed animals, education by making people aware of the issue and observing any feeding behavior.”

The key is to teach as many as possible of the 2 million people who visit the park each year why they need to change their behavior. That will force the animals to seek food on their own.

“People just don’t know. They come from a different culture where they feed birds in their backyard, they go to the park and feed the ducks,” Herr said. “We protect our resources here.”

Approaching and feeding wildlife creates unnatural behavior in animals, she said.

“We have foxes in the Paradise area who are passing along this unnatural behavior to their young. I have found numerous plastic bags around the entrance to their dens,” Herr said. “They are even going up to Camp Muir to steal food out of people’s packs.”

Volunteers showed up in the hundreds to help the park recover from the 2006 flood. This is an issue just as important to the long-term health of the park’s ecosystem. If you have the time, join the Keep Wildlife Wild team.

Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-597-8640

jeff.mayor@thenewstribune.com

blogs.thenewstribune.com/adventure

Get involved

What: Keep Wildlife Wild event

When: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 25

Sign up: keepwildlifewild.eventbrite.com or rainiervolunteers.blogspot.com