bear board

plural bear boards

1. A thin piece of wood impaled with nails or screws used to deter bears from entering a human structure such as a cabin or tent by placing them at an entrance or otherwise attaching them to the structure.

   Found mud in bottom of water barrel put there by youngster from McFarland's dude ranch. Same kid who broke crosshairs on firefinder, tramped down nails in bear board and set my binoculars on the hot stove.

   1977, Edward Abbey, quoting Scotty Beaton, [Lookout logbook of Scotty Beaton], September 11, 1950, quoted in The Journey Home: Some Words in Defense of the American West, New York: E. P. Dutton, →ISBN, page 44