How to Bear Hang Your Food When the Trees Suck: A Guide to the New BWCAW Bear Aware Order
Superior National Forest reissued its BWCAW Bear Aware Food Storage Order effective February 1, 2026. The order requires visitors to either hang all food, food containers, and scented items or store them in an Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee–certified bear-resistant container.
The reissued order remains in effect for an additional five years. The requirement runs from April 1 to November 30 of each year, which is one fewer month than the previous order. The last order required food storage from March 1 to November 30.
New FAQ Questions with the New Order
The Superior National Forest also published an updated FAQ that answers questions. The USFS won’t install bear storage lockers in the BWCAW in order to maintain its wilderness character, and because installing and maintaining them at nearly 2,000 campsites would be prohibitively expensive.
Paddlers need to properly store food left at portages. If you double-carry portages, you’ll need to either carry the food with you on each trip, hang it, or store it in a bear-resistant container.
The Forest Service also states that anything with a strong odor, including food, food containers, scented items such as soap, lip balm, toothpaste, and trash, must be handled in accordance with the food storage order.
Previous questions and guidance can be found in the official FAQ PDF.
How to Bear Hang Your Food When the Trees Suck
Few perfect trees with a branch at the ideal height and distance exist in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for a traditional PCT-style bear hang. Instead, Superior National Forest recommends the Single Tree and Pulley method when the perfect branch doesn’t exist.
In this method, you use two ropes. I pack two throw bags, line winders, and line paired with a Hilltop Packs bear bag (see the options here). First, throw your primary line over a sturdy branch or into a tree crotch 20 or more feet off the ground. Attach a pulley or carabiner (I use a mini-biner) to that line and lower it until it hangs about seven feet down from the tree crotch.
Run your second rope through the pulley and attach your food bag. As you raise the bag, pull it outward so it hangs away from the trunk. When properly hung, the bag should be at least six feet away from the tree and twelve feet off the ground before you tie it off.
Always hang your food away from camp and minimizing impact as you walk back into the woods.
Bear canisters are easier, and we’re slowly moving away from food bags for family trips. I use a BearVault BV500 Journey Bear Canister, and I also have a smaller one for short solo trips. Ideally, for a family of three on a week-long trip, we’d carry two BV500s.
Right now, we hang some of our food for the first part of the trip, and as we eat it, we switch to a canister.
However you store your food, the goal is keeping bears and paddlers safe. The Boundary Waters remains one of the most pristine canoeing destinations in the world, and with proper food storage, we can keep it that way.
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