Maple Ridge’s Bear Aware program is underway, but for now it is a toothless one.
It will rely on education, door-to-door discussions, pamphlets and social media, but not fines.
It’s either that or rely on an increasingly short-staffed conservation officer service to deal with a growing bear population.
“Our manpower is low,” conservation officer Denny Chretien told council Monday.
The service has 75 officers for all of B.C., and five of them, as well as a sergeant are responsible for the area from Lytton to Langley.
“It’s been tough for us to try to see where our manpower will go.”
Bears are everywhere throughout Maple Ridge, not just forest areas, council heard. A bear recently attacked and killed a llama in central Maple Ridge, Chretien added.
“People often call officers when they see a bear standing on its hind legs. But the animals are just trying to see and hear more clearly, while saying: ‘Hey, I’m here and I really like your back yard – but I’m not going to eat you,’” Chretien explained.
“Now, a bear that has its head down, and walks towards you as if he was your favourite little pet – that’s aggression.”
Chretien said dealing with a mother bear and her cubs is particularly difficult. The public doesn’t like to see cubs removed. But relocating them is expensive and putting them in strange territory usually means the cubs suffer a slow death from starvation.
“If you put them in wolf country, they’re gone.”
Chretien said black bears will stake out territory and will move into urban areas if they’re allowed. Even electric fences won’t deter them once they get used to a food source. However, an electric fence is useful for initially keeping bears away from a new area.
In the meantime, Bear Aware, launched earlier this year, will rely on education and awareness, said Kim Day, executive-director with the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society.
From April to August last year, Maple Ridge generated the most complaints about human-bears conflicts in B.C., logging 641 calls.
Maple Ridge first contemplated implementing a bear bylaw three years ago, but wanted to educate the public first.
The recycling society is now working with other municipal departments to roll out the program, launched in January. An application has also been made to the Ministry of Environment for a summer time coordinator in Maple Ridge.
Day said recycling staff have already visited 155 homes in the Fern Crescent area and held five workshops in schools.
The society is also encouraging people to buy bear-proof garbage containers, at about $120 each, and encouraging stores to stock them.
As well, the district will replace some garbage containers in parks with bear proof ones over a number of years.
Day said some people say they don’t mind if bears are in their backyard, and some even feed them.
“They are wild animals and it only takes one incident to have dire consequences.”
The society wants to reduce bear-human conflicts, have fewer encounters, so “bears can just be bears.”
David Boag, director of parks and facilities, said the district is considering changing a bylaw and requiring residents to put out garbage the morning of pickup, rather than the night before.
But there will be no requirement for people to buy bear-proof garbage containers, he said previously.
“Not at this time.”
Addition of regulations and bylaws and possibly fines by conservation officers will be a gradual process, done over time, he said in a report.
Chretien told council that the Wildlife Act has been changed to allow fines of $345 against people who leave out food. Dog food, fruit trees, garbage, bird feeders and bee hives can all attract bears.
Coun. Al Hogarth pointed out that bears will be attracted to beehives in urban areas. Boag said that would require electric fences to discourage the bruins after a sweet snack.
Council was also considering a bylaw to allow beekeeping in urban areas, but that was pulled from the afternoon agenda.