Unharvested fruit is the biggest problem attracting bears into town, members of the Lake Cowichan Bear Association told Lake Cowichan council members during their Oct. 22 meeting.
LCBA, which is the only bear aware group in Cowichan Valley, has been working diligently to raise awareness and make residents more bear smart and aware. It was pointed out at the meeting by member Jaqueline Sherk that the town had adopted bear smart bylaws in 2022 which are currently not being enforced, and said one of the current biggest concerns is bears getting into unharvested fruit trees.
Member Vicki Pauze who led the presentation said that council has been informed of the 22 locations where this is most a concern, and have been working with WildSafeBC to inform residents that this unharvested fruit is attracting bears.
The group of volunteers is seeking funding and supports from council to move forward with getting the town more 'Bear Smart'. They feel they are already on the right track with the help of WildSafeBC which wrote up the bear conflict and mapped out where the biggest problem areas are. Due to lack of funding the coordinator had to stop his work in August.
"We weren't able to give any money to WildSafeBC this year," said Pauze. "Our coordinator for the area continued to service Lake Cowichan and give school presentations despite having only 40 per cent of his budget. He gave us a wealth of knowledge, he was a super coordinator for us. The last time we went out we did walks around town with bear aware signs and the tagging of garbage bins that were non-compliant. We still have everything he left us and we will still continue to walk the town. Becoming a bear smart community in the long run will save money."
Pauze, who noted that Port Alberni was the community on the island to become bear smart in the early 2000s, hopes that in the near future some money might be saved in the town's budget to go towards bear resistant locking containers at parks.
"We have already talked about this in our previous budget discussions, especially having them at the Duck Pond, parks and at the trails head," said Mayor Tim McGonigle at the end of the presentation. "So it's just a matter of implementing it into the budget."
Part of the group's mission to spread awareness has been through putting up bear aware signs at locations that have had the most bear sightings, which Pauze said they did with out permission, so officially asked for it during the meeting. Permission was granted, with guidelines on where they could be placed as Mayor Tim McGonigle pointed out that they have been warned by BC Hydro not to place them on hydro poles due to safety issues. McGonigle suggested the group work with town staff who will look to come up with the best solution moving forward.
Another ask of the group was to have a member of council be a liaison for them, so that conversations could be had on the ways the town is capable of supporting them, which which received a positive response from Councillor Aaron Frisby at the end of the meeting.
"You are on the right track, I think the best way to move forward is to have both a staff member, and member of council meet with you regularly to see what we can do," said Frisby.
Pauze bought up the possibility of having a special scheduled Saturday garbage pick-up during the height of the holiday seasons like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year especially when it comes to organics and food waste, which are both big attractions for bears. Council members said they are planning to do a community information session on recycling organics and garbage and all of that once again in the not too distant future.
LCBA, who will soon have their new website up, requested to have the town's support with including information on being more bear smart and aware when they mail out property taxes and utility bills to the residents.
"We'd like to have a link on the town website that would link people to our site so that we can list bear safety things as well as our newsletters, "said Pauze. "I've looked at printing off something, and putting it in everyone's mailbox but it is costly to do that as the little group of volunteers that we are, so that would be a help if we could include it with the town mail outs."
Pauze shared some positive personal experience about her interactions with the public while educating and spreading awareness, and said out of the hundreds of doors she knocked on, all but a few were very supportive of their initiative, which was the same reaction they received during their fundraisers and other community events in town.
"People love wildlife here," said Pauze. "It's not just for bears, when you clean up garbage and things like that, you are saving all wildlife,and keeping undesirable wildlife out of town as well. It's going to take a whole community to solve this problem. I personally did one bear aware visit, and when I arrived it was a disaster, overflowing with fruit trees and there was garbage on the ground. After speaking with the resident, over that weekend they had tended to everything, and had sent me pictures of their cleaned up property. It made me feel great, that I actually made a difference on one property."
The meeting ended on a positive note with council commending the group's efforts to date, and assured that everything which had been brought to the table would be discussed.
