After three years of moving towards a Bear Smart designation, the District has stepped back, citing cost and an unwillingness to commit to the program as reasons for the change of heart.
The District is over halfway to a Bear Smart designations, having just completed a Bear Hazard Assessment, “in effort to identify aspects of the community that could be improved in order to further reduce the amount of bear interactions within the municipality,” according to the report, prepared by Wildsafe BC.
“Tumbler Ridge has done a very good job of putting the cart before the horse,” says Fire Chief Curry, who helped prepare the report. “The bear hazard assessment is usually the first step in becoming a bear smart community. We’ve done things like bylaw amendments, bear proofing in terms of solid waste carts. We’ve done a lot of things preemptively and now we’re coming back to get the fine details.”
The report says the District “has made significant progress towards obtaining Bear Smart designation by implementing bear smart bylaws, distributing bear resistant bins to each residence, and continuing an education program through WildSafeBC.”
The assessment identifies key issues that influence existing or potential human-bear conflict in The District of Tumbler Ridge had only one area—the park next to the Community Garden and the Museum—being rated as a high risk area, with a number of other locations—Chamberlain Park, Cottonwood Park, and both schools—being rated medium.
The town is in prime bear habitat and was designed to have natural corridors for wildlife to pass through town, primarily Monkman Way and Mackenzie Way. However, over the last few years, the bears have started to stay.
In the past six years, there have been 372 black bear and 89 grizzly bear reports, though this number is low as many people do not report sightings. Black bear reports have been high over the last four years, with a dip in 2017, while reports of grizzly bears were high in 2016 and 2017.
This led in part to the new bear-resistant garbage bins, as well as new attractant management bylaws, and an educational campaign.
Despite the new bins, incidents of bears attracted by garbage have increased. While bylaw has been working to educate people (with 56 people contacted last year for solid waste violations and 167 for unsightly premises, which includes bear attractants such as compost heaps and uncovered garbage), human bear conflicts have been on the rise, with the bears nearly always on the losing end.
As part of the assessment, risk areas have been identified as human-use areas with potential for conflict with bears. “Risk rating were determined based on an analysis of the previous criteria (evidence of past bear activity, presence of attractants, and proximity to quality bear habitat) as well as human safety concerns and use by children,” says the draft assessment. “The park adjacent to the community garden has been classified as a high risk area due to its potential for a negative human-bear encounter. The other parks and schools were considered medium risk while the Flatbed Lions Campground was rated as a low/ medium risk and the golf course and transfer station were rated as low risk.”
The next step in the process was a bear-human conflict management plan, designed to: “identify priorities and opportunities to address ongoing issues, further reduce conflicts and increase the overall safety in the community.”
According to Curry, Tumbler Ridge would be the eighth community to be designated a Bear Smart community in the province, “if we were to follow through to that point.”
But that’s on hold, at least for now. At the January 6 council meeting, Council proved unwilling to spend the money on the Bear Hazard Assessment plan. “My concern is how much it will cost to implement,” said Councillor Miedzinski. “If this is going to be extensive and pricey in the long run, with us clearing parks for visibility and line of sight, so that we make the parks safer…$3000 for a management plan is one thing, but then to go and take all the fruit trees out of town, to make it more safe so bears don’t get attracted to garbage in our town, it makes me leery to see how much it will actually cost us.”
CAO Jordan Wall says the District can choose to implement parts of the plan, without moving forward with the Bear Smart designation. “Should we want to proceed with this, council can get the costing and the ability to make a decision at that point,” he says. “Bear smart status doesn’t bring anything other than the brand and the status.”
Wall says the report gave council the option to move forward with Bear Smart Designation, but also what could be done to discourage bears from coming into and staying in the community.
“At this point we’ve done really great steps to become bear aware,” says Councillor Kirby. “I think until council decides we want to become bear smart community, this assessment might not be needed, and I don’t think we should vote on this part of it unless we are willing to take the steps to become Bear Smart. I think we’ve already got all the information we need to work on at this point.”
Ultimately, the motion to move forward was unanimously voted down.
“I’m not sure I’m willing to rip down every fruit tree in town,” says Mayor Bertrand.
