Bears are back out, at the Cowichan Lake area, so lock up your garbage.
This is the message local conservation officer Mark Kissinger tries his best to spread every spring, in order to save the lives of local bears.
“We’ve already had our first bear sighted in Honeymoon Bay,” he said.
As a new offender, this bear will very likely be returned into the wilderness, Kissinger said. But, sometimes this isn’t the case.
When bears are habitual offenders – usually drawn to areas where there’s readily accessible food – they have become too accustomed to living among humans, and must be put down.
As such, keeping bears out of your garbage is literally a life or death situation, as it’s the garbage that keeps bears coming back to residential areas.
Bear sightings can be called in to 1-877-952-7277. Kissinger says that the sooner a bear is called in, the less habituated they are, and the less likely they will have to be killed.