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It’s still early in Whistler’s black bear season, but people working to reduce human-bear conflict and keep bears from finding garbage in the resort are “encouraged” by a dramatic reduction in the number of calls to report bear sightings so far this year.
Conservation Officer Drew Milne said Tuesday (June 23) that call volume to report bear activity is down almost 50 per cent compared to the early part of last season. Since April, 114 calls have been received at the B.C. Conservation Officer Service hotline. For the same period in 2008, 209 calls were received.
“I haven’t seen as many bears (in the Village and Whistler’s residential areas),” Milne said. “It’s encouraging.”
Even more “promising,” Milne said, is that only five calls were received during May that were related to bears getting into garbage, compared with 20 such calls in the same month last year.
At least part of the reduction in bear sightings is being attributed to the municipality’s new Garbage Disposal and Wildlife Attractants Bylaw, which was adopted in early April. Though the municipal bylaw department reports that no tickets have been issued under the new bylaw to date, the new regulations require that businesses and residential strata groups must store garbage in wildlife-proof enclosures.
Heather Beresford, the municipality’s environmental stewardship manager and co-chair of the collaborative Whistler Bear Working Group, said a letter outlining the new rules was sent to all Village businesses once the bylaw was adopted. Bylaw officers, the building department, strata reps and business operators have been working together since then to achieve compliance, she said.
“People are getting it now and being really cooperative,” Beresford said.
Sylvia Dolson, executive director of the Get Bear Smart Society, said many waste bins and enclosures have already been brought into compliance with the bylaw.
“Those properties are no longer seeing any conflicts,” Dolson said. “I think that’s huge. It’s bringing the overall numbers down.”
Milne, Beresford and Dolson all agree that continued public education about removing bear attractants is also helping to reduce bear activity in Whistler’s commercial and residential areas. While 11 bears were shot last year because they were considered to be a threat to public safety, Milne said no bear deaths related to conflict have occurred so far in 2009.
“People are managing their attractants a lot better,” he said. “I think it’s really increased awareness of the public.”
Milne also attributed the fact that no bears have yet been destroyed this year to the calls that do come in. Reports of bear activity help conservation officers and others “tremendously” by helping them understand bear behaviour and helping remove attractants. It’s important for people to keep calling, he said.
“Every call we get helps save a bear’s life,” Milne said.
Dolson said while the new bylaw and efforts of the bear working group seem to be working, there are still problems with people stockpiling garbage inside their homes because they don’t have reliable transportation to take waste to Whistler’s compactor sites. Most of the human-bear conflicts last year were bears breaking into houses.
“That’s still an issue that… needs to be resolved,” Dolson said.
The decrease in bear activity so far this season is also no excuse to “let our guard down or get complacent,” Beresford said. Dolson and Milne agreed, as it’s still early in the season and things typically start getting busier in July.
“We’re not out of the woods by any means,” Dolson said. “With this sort of an issue you never solve the problem. It’s an ongoing challenge.”
To report a bear sighting, call 1-877-952-7277.
