It's never too early to be thinking about bears. With spring just around the corner, the awakening of our ursine residents is soon to follow. Squamish has come a long way in preventing human/bear conflicts. For example: bear resistant pedestrian bins are replacing the old barrel style containers, all residential garbage totes are getting locks, and the Wildlife Attractant and Electric Fencing Bylaw are getting updated. These proactive initiatives will result in a safer and cleaner community for all residents and in turn, will reduce the number of bears needlessly destroyed. The process of reducing conflicts is a work in progress and it won't happen overnight. Squamish is well on its way to becoming a Bear Smart community but there is still much more to be done. By nature of its location, nestled in a valley at the head of the Howe Sound and surrounded by the Coast Range Mountains, Squamish is prime bear country and we can always expect to see bears. We have abundant areas of early seral stage habitat such as clear cuts, forest openings and fields and if you combine that with the salmon bearing streams, marine beach habitat and forested ecosystems, you have an area that can support a healthy population of bears. In order to reduce/prevent conflicts, it is essential to keep bears moving through the community and to not entice them to stop and investigate; the more garbage and non-natural food we allow bears access to, the fatter and happier they will be. The fatter and happier they are, the more cubs they produce and before you know it, we have a population of human food conditioned bears wandering our streets. The actual management of bears is the responsibility of the Conservation Officer Service; the management of attractants is our responsibility and if we want to see less bears in our neighbourhoods (and keep them in the wild) we need to shoulder this responsibility determinedly. So keep those totes locked and put your tote curbside only on the morning of collection, hang your birdfeeders out of reach (10 feet off the ground and six feet away from tree trunks), lock all outdoor freezers and fridges, maintain an odourless compost by turning and liming, feed pets indoors, keep barbecues clean and pick your fruit. These simple measures will go a long way in preventing problem bears from evolving. For further information, contact the Bear Aware office at: 604-815-5066 or [email protected]. To report a bear incident call 1-877-952-7277.
