Raising awareness: garbage and bears

In light of the upcoming public meeting to discuss the future of the Lac Le Jeune Refuse Transfer Station, and the ongoing discussions about concerns regarding curbside garbage collection, these excerpts from articles may help to raise awareness regarding garbage and bears.

This is from the BC Ministry of Environment website:

As more people — and more garbage — move into traditional bear habitat, more bears are becoming garbage-conditioned, and have to be destroyed. It’s a terrible waste of life. It’s also costly: the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks' Conservation Officer Service spends about $1 million a year dealing with bear/people conflicts.

The B.C. government is doing more than responding to bear/people conflicts. We’re encouraging people to take responsibility for garbage and other bear attractants to prevent problems from occurring in the first place. That requires the cooperation of the public, local governments, and industry.

On the BC Ministry of Environment website "Public education and research" is listed as one of the solutions. In our community we are already practicing the solution. Moving to curbside garbage collection would certainly be a step backwards.

More public information and education is needed to change public behaviour about dealing with garbage and other bear attractants. Government is also addressing other issues — studying the effectiveness of translocation, and considering garbage management options such as direct disposal of garbage from homes to bear-proof collection bins, incineration of garbage, and odor control at landfills.

This article was published in the July 17, 2009 edition of Logan Lake Weekly.

BEAR AWARE PROGRAM

Council was shown a Bear Aware PowerPoint on the computer by Megan Robertson from BC Conservation; there is a real problem with the humans leaving garbage out, Garbage Disposal containers can also be a problem if not locked tight, as well as bird feeders, un-cleaned Barbeque equipment and fruit trees as they attract the bears. To date there have been 40 complaints so far this year, a fair amount of complaints for a town this size.

Ten Bears have been removed and destroyed, as they will return to the area. The population is definitely growing in our area. There is only one Bear Trap in our area.

Bear resistant Garbage Bins are now being used and the new cans won't open for the bears. Please don't put your garbage out the night before pickup, pick ripening fruits and knock flowers off to prevent the fruit growth. Anyone encouraging the bears can be fined $575.00.

Councillor Youd said that he had called in to report a bear here on the weekend but the call was not returned. Apparently all calls go to Victoria, B.C.

While bears are not are only concern with the planned changes to our waste management, they certainly are top on the list. We want to avoid the consequences of garbage bears in our area -- certain death of the bears, risks for children waiting for school buses, encounters with residents and pets...the list goes on.

photo by Walkadog