By now, backyard gardeners have been on their knees planting for a couple of weeks and the yard furniture and camping equipment has been dragged out from its winter storage in preparation for outdoor summer activities.
Along with these activities comes the possibility of bear, cougar and coyote encounters with people. Unfortunately, encounters of this nature are not just occurring in the wilderness, but are just as likely to occur in our own backyards as we develop more extensively into the forested areas.
Each interaction has the potential for a deadly outcome, but in a neighbourhood occurrence, the wildlife usually ends up being the loser, such was the case this past long weekend when a bear had to be euthanized in the Albion area and a trap had to be set for another ‘problem’ bear in the same area – something that could have been avoided if all residents paid attention to their own backyard behaviours throughout the rest of the year.
Although the number of bears being euthanized has declined from 30 per year to five per year in Maple Ridge since 2012, when the WildSafeBC program was introduced, five dead bears are still too many and the issues that lead to these unnecessary killings are the same issues that encourage or increase other scavenger feeders coming into our city neighbourhoods in search of an easy meal.
When speaking with Dan Mikolay, WildSafeBC coordinator, whose role includes educating the public on how to avoid negative wildlife interactions, it became clear that while bears, coyotes and cougars are the type of wildlife that he is most often asked to speak about, other smaller scavenger feeders, such as rodents and raccoons, also cause concerns. The issues that bring them into our neighbourhoods are the same as those that lure the larger animals, such as the bears, and as residents we need to make that connection in order to avoid outcomes that range from dealing with pesky critters all the way to deadly encounters with the larger wildlife.
This is why Mr. Mikolay was grateful that city council passed the Wildlife and Vector Control Bylaw at its Tuesday meeting. The bylaw provides more tools for bylaws to enforce compliance in ensuring a property owner is not providing attractants to wildlife and vector, which include rats, mice and mosquitos.
The bylaw classifies the following: “Attractant means any substance which could reasonably be expected to attract wildlife or does attract wildlife, including but not limited to household refuse, kitchen waste, food products, beverage containers, barbecue grills, pet food, bird feed, diapers, grease barrels, fruit, oil and other petroleum products and chemical products.”
This new bylaw will provide the teeth that has been lacking within the previous bylaw that primarily focused on homeowners who put their garbage out before 5 a.m. on the morning of garbage pick-up, which is still not permissible under the new bylaw.
Now, bylaw staff and organizations over and above Mr. Mikolay’s WildSafeBC, such as Kanaka Education and Environment Partnership Society (KEEPS), Alouette River Management Society (ARMS), which oversees the Adopt a Block program and the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society, all of which strive to assist in educating the public on how to reduce negative interactions with wildlife, will have more tools, as the regulations provide solutions that will prevent bears from being habituated with people and reduce potential injury or death of a resident, due to an encounter with a bear, cougar or coyote, all of which have occurred in other communities in recent weeks.
When I spoke to Ross Davies, executive director for KEEPS, about the recent bear death, he was clearly upset to learn about it. He prides himself on the environmental work that KEEPS does within the Kanaka Creek watershed and part of his work involves educating residents on maintaining a healthy respect for the bear population and the importance of ensuring bears remain wary of human interactions for the sake of both the bear and people.
However, he shared the difficulty of this through a story of a family who arrived at the Kanaka Creek fish fence when a family of bears was fishing in the creek and the parents put their children in a dangerous situation trying to get the perfect selfie of the family near the bear cubs. He shakes his head when he recalls the image, knowing that it takes a charging bear less than three seconds to cross a distance of 10 metres. Also, it is this type of behaviour that increases the chances of bears becoming habituated to the presence of humans and increases the type of interaction that ends up getting bears killed, or children mauled.
If you have ever met Mr. Davies, you know his excitement about educating residents about the Kanaka Creek watershed is contagious, as is Mr. Mikolay’s dedication to ensuring wildlife remains alive and at a safe distance from residents as we creep into their environment through our neighbourhood development.
Both men and their organizations are ready and willing, along with the staff of ARMS and the city to tackle the issue of negative wildlife/human interactions. However, they can’t do it without residents becoming informed about how to properly handle attractants such as garbage, barbecues, bird feeders, pet food and fruit trees, to name a few, that when not handled correctly, cause the needless death of wildlife and increased rat, mice and mosquito populations.
Therefore, if you think you reside in an area of the city that bears, cougars or coyotes would not populate and this bylaw doesn’t pertain to you — my thoughts changed on this when a fairly large bear ran in front of my car while driving west just past the 124th Avenue and 224th Street intersection and hopped a fence into a back yard — the Wildlife and Vector Control Bylaw is still worth learning about, as it can also help you reduce rodent and mosquito populations.
And if at any time you think feeding coyotes and raccoons — yes, people do this — or getting a selfie with one of our resident bears is a good idea, flip that selfie into the image of a rat, because if your actions contribute to attracting one type of wildlife into your neighbourhood, you are most likely going to attract the other type, and no body likes a rat or mosquito problem in their backyard.
Cheryl Ashlie is a former Maple Ridge school trustee, city councillor,
constituency assistant and former
citizen of the year.