Beth Holbrook first got interested in bear management when she was confronted by a bear.
The resident of the Forest Grove neighbourhood in North Burnaby was out walking her 80-pound dog when she found herself face to face with a bear.
“The bear seemed unconcerned about me or my big dog,” Holbrook said.
That was a bit of a jolt to Holbrook, the mother of a newborn. She wondered about the potential dangers to people who lived at Burnaby Mountain and about the dangers to the bears themselves.
So she did some research.
Then she got involved with her neighbours.
Now, she is part of the Burnaby Wildlife Awareness Association that is trying to work with the City of Burnaby to develop enforceable bylaws to preserve the safety of people, pets and wildlife by “requiring residents to responsibly manage their attractants.”
“Wildlife are attracted to our neighbourhoods for a number of reasons – one of the major ones being garbage,” reads a presentation the association did for Burnaby city council in October 2018.
The association listed these “sighting statistics” for Burnaby from 2014 to the 2018:
2,049 black bear
372 coyote
178 cougar
84 bobcat/lynx
So, obviously, black bears dominate and we are heading into prime bear season as they forage for food.
The problem is that we make it so damn easy for bears to find food so they keep coming into our neighbourhoods.
Holbrook says one of the biggest problems is Burnaby’s green bin program. She says the city means well in recycling food scraps, but there a couple of issues she’d like to see change.
For one thing, Holbrook says the green bins are only “bear resistant” and not “bear-proof” containers – meaning bears are able to get them open.
Holbrook says people leave their green bins full of stinky food out the night before they are collected.
“I’ve seen all these bins lined up in a row – it’s effectively a bear buffet,” she said. “Basically, we’re packaging it up for the bears and they’re going to town.”
In Holbrook’s complex, there is a large communal green bin that bears are able to break into.
The association asked council last fall for a change to the current bylaw in relation to garbage management. They want bear-proof cans - including in all public parks - plus better public education and enforcement of revised bylaws to ensure people are responsible with their food waste.
These sound like reasonable recommendations. I especially like educating residents to leave their green bins inside until the morning they are collected.
We need to do something. Bear season has arrived and they are hungry beasts.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
