Loeve,
What area of the world do you live in? If you don't want to state the town, could you state the country and state or province? I am curious to see how far the range is for soapberries!

Mislu, just checked for more info on shepherdia canandensis and could not confirm it's in my town. I live on an island off Cape Cod, Massachusetts and we get plants growing here that thrive in sandy glacial soil, but soapberry may not be one of them after all. Still bet it would grow here if planted... They've studied other species in my town that are also nitrogen fixing and mentioned shephardia canadensis but of stands in Wisconsin and somewhere else. I'm still going to keep my eyes open for it.

Check this out, Mislu, Shepherdia Canadensis is the primary late summer food for bears in the Front Region of Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. [www.jstor.org] 3 out of 4 years they were the primary food for grizzly bears in August and September. That's a lot of berries!

Hi Musicbebe
maybe a piece of rinsed and soaked sea/ irish moss would add some stiffness, not sure about its peakedness. Not tried it myself...yet.

loeve,
Wow, i didn't know that bears ate that particular berry in mass. I have observed bears eating cloudberries in very, very large quantities. When I went picking for cloudberries, I would see huge piles of mashed digested berries, it actually smelled kind of good. Its difficult to believe, but when an animal is on a fruit diet, it doesn't produce foul stools.

It took me awhile to figure out it was a dung pile for bears. I guess I just couldn't believe that it could eat that much. Also it was in layers, of different ages, so it was either several bears, or the same bear going back to the same spot. Prior to that I didn't know that bears had 'toilet' areas. I guess it makes sense,animals wouldn't want to spoil every area they go to.

Sorry, I just go off on tangents. I am actually the bears did that, I am sure by now there is a beautiful new patch of clouberries producing a bumper crop. Ensuring its offspring continued food supply. I have heard that bears put on weight faster eating cloudberries over salmon roe, but I don't remember were I heard that.