The District of Squamish is looking to put an end to a buffet that seems to have become the “it” spot for forest creatures.
Thanks to a number of visits over the past months made by a grizzly bear to the Squamish Landfill, municipal officials are in a rush to set up electric fencing around the dump. Currently there’s no fencing around the facility, an allowance that’s stipulated in the landfill’s permit, said Rod MacLeod, the District of Squamish’s director of engineering. However, new provincial guidelines recommend a barrier.
“They are guidelines, not regulations,” MacLeod noted.
The district budgeted for landfill fencing in 2011, when $100,000 was set aside. A final, permanent design will be submitted to council in fall, with the aim of building a structure in spring, MacLeod said.
In the meantime, next week the municipality is erecting a portable electric fence around the dump portion of the site. It’s anticipated to cost approximately $30,000.
“That is clearly in response to the issue of the grizzly,” MacLeod said, adding while conservation officers tracked the bear they also spotted wolves and coyotes at the dump.
Landfill operators are expected to cover the garbage with an earth layer every evening to discourage wildlife. The district recently adopted a practice used in Revelstoke, placing large steel plates on top of the trash to prevent animals from digging it up.
The Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) implemented electric fencing around the area’s three landfills in 1994. The decade prior to the added deterrent, the dump had become a major food source for animals in the region. The bears that were already accustomed to feeding on garbage at the landfill, started to access alternative food sources within Revelstoke. During the decade between 1986 and 1996, on average 27 bears were destroyed per year and 16 were relocated.
Today the bears know to stay away from the dump, the CSRD’s waste management facility superintendent Isaac Walker said.
“[The electric fences] are very effective,” he said. “They won’t even go near them.”
The electric wire runs around the landfill, four feet off the ground. Maintenance on the fencing is low, Walker said. It doesn’t stop all wildlife from entering the dump. Deer can jump over the fence and smaller animals, like skunks, sometimes burrow under the barrier.
“[Electric fencing] is not the ultimate solution for all animals,” he said, noting the officials implement extra bird control measures.
Electric fences are a cost-effective method to scare bears away, a 2011 Best Management Practices: Managing Waste Management Facilities for Bears and Wildlife report for the Government of Alberta stated.
“The combination of an electric fence with a chain-link fence is even more effective and can further minimize maintenance costs and prevent garbage from shorting out the electrical circuit,” the report states.
