Moving Towards Bear Smart Status

Monday, June 29, 2009 10:00 PM

Prince George, B.C.- The City of Prince George has one of the highest records for encounters with bears, and destruction of bears in the Province.

That’s according to Bear Smart, which notes that from 2004 to 2007, there were 2,124 bear occurrences reported within City limits years). Six hundred and 24 bears have been destroyed within the city of Prince George and surrounding areas (1994-2007), with 135 (22%) destroyed in the last 4 years (2004-2007)

Council has approved having staff prepare a plan and a budget to get the City to B.C. Bear Smart status. The budget is expected to be in the $250 thousand dollar range.

Bear Facts:

�� Highest number of occurrence reports that persisted throughout the 4 years:

(1) CollegeHeights;

(2) Charella Gardens;

(3) Hart Highlands upper and lower, (particularly theHoferkamp road and Inverness Trailer Park areas to the south Hart); and,

(4) Foothills immediately west and east of the Nechako River Bridge / Moore’s meadow.

�� Bears sighted by the public were the most common occurrence reported followed by problems with garbage.

�� After removing sightings and not recorded occurrences from the database, 68% of the remaining reports were due to garbage, 17% were bears attracted to fruit on trees, 13% were bears attracted to domestic items, and 2% were bears that had been injured or orphaned.

There are 6 steps that must be taken in order to achieve B.C. Bear Smart status. Prince George has completed two, and is working on another. ( those which are completed are in bold)

1 Prepare a Bear Hazard Assessment using the criteria outlined. √

2 Prepare a bear-human conflict management plan designed to address the bear hazards and land-use conflicts identified in the hazard assessment. (In progress at time of report)

3 *Revise planning and decision-making documents to be consistent with the bear-human conflict management plan.

4 Implement a continuing education program directed at all sectors of the community. √

5 *Develop and maintain a bear-proof municipal solid waste management system.

6* Implement "Bear Smart" bylaws prohibiting the provision of food to bears as a result of intent, neglect, or irresponsible management of attractants.

*Fulfillment of these steps requires partnership between the Northern Bear Awareness Society, the Conservation Officer Service, and the City of Prince George, which is currently being worked towards.

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Posted on Monday, June 29, 2009 10:00 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: metalman on June 30 2009 7:10 AM

Bearsmart: stay away from the bear! But seriously, people really should control the issues that cause the bears to come into their yard in the first place. The bear is just foraging, looking for it's next meal, and we humans are in the habit of unwittingly leaving things out for temptation. A bear may wander through a residential area looking for food, but if he does not find any, he may not come back. If he finds some, he will certainly be back, and develop into what we are fond of calling a problem bear.
metalman.

Posted by: gus on June 30 2009 8:58 AM

bear smart .... woman smarter in every way ....

Reminds me of a Harry Belafonte song.

Posted by: supertech on June 30 2009 8:28 PM

Get bear smart or be charged with 'baiting' is the general drift of the news release. The provincial coffers will get fatter that way. It's just more control. If we shot 100 bears a year it wouldn't put a dent in the bear population. According to the ministry there's a lot of poaching happening. If that's true, there's more bears than there are people in the north.

Posted by: supertech on June 30 2009 8:31 PM

You can't move the people so move the bears--If they're not breathing it's easier to do.

Posted by: Palopu on June 30 2009 10:31 PM

Once again the Danny Do Gooders are baying at the moon.

Question??? Where the hell are all these bears coming from. Years ago there were a lot less, and when the dumps were open garbage dumps thats basically where you would find them. What is driving them into the Citys? I suspect that there are not many bears shot by hunters anymore, and therefore their population is growing and their territories are getting smaller.

People rarely if ever have any idea what the consequences of their actions are. One can assume that if the garbage dumps are fenced in and bears cannot get at the garbage like they could in the good old days then they would begin to look elsewhere for their garbage. Like in the City for example...Duh.....

Another example is the new garbage system in Prince George. This has effectively stopped the crows and ravens from scattering garbage around, but it also has another effect. When the crows and ravens cannot get into the garbage to eat they begin to look elsewhere. Ie; Birds Nests, Squirrels etc; Have you noticed less birds and squirrels in your neibourhood??

If we are so concerned about wild life, why would we build a University in the heart of bear, and moose country, with the intent of putting in subdivisions, shopping centres, etc; etc; etc;.

What a bunch of BS. If people were concerned about wildlife they would do something effective, rather than this crap about bears in the city.

Maybe they should have a look at the number of Moose killed each year on the railway track between Jasper Alta and Prince Rupert BC. They might find the number appalling.

Posted by: Eagleone on July 1 2009 3:44 AM

Well I like the bears, so I would request that if you see a bear... ignore it... its the best thing you can do for yourself and the bear. Bears will ignore and avoid humans if given the chance, so give them a chance I figure. I have a hiking trail in the city I hike at least once a week and its full of bears all the time... this time of year you can walk right past them and they don't even care one bit... lots of berries and food for them now, so they don't need to bother humans... IMO the only time to worry about bears is in October or late fall, and even then the bear is still more scared of you than you should be of it.

Posted by: gus on July 1 2009 2:09 PM

"Maybe they should have a look at the number of Moose killed each year on the railway track between Jasper Alta and Prince Rupert BC. They might find the number appalling."

I remember when I first came to PG many moons ago there used to be articles about moose killed on the tracks. I remember one year the count was over 100.