Conservation Officer Service says it has received several reports of bears accessing backyard barbecues in the Sea to Sky communities.
“It’s not summer yet but that doesn’t mean people aren’t using their BBQ’s — and these can be attractants for bears,” the service said.
“Please clean your grill after each use and store your BBQ in a secure place.”
This is the time when lean and hungry bears are emerging out of hibernation.
According to the WildSafeBC, bears tend to stay low in the valley bottoms during this time and eventually follow the snowmelt up the mountainside in search of spring green-up and summer berries.
However, garbage and fruit can lure them into neighbourhoods, with often deadly consequences.
According to a report presented to the council in March, 10 bears were destroyed by the Conservation Officer Service in 2019. Eight of them were destroyed due to residential garbage and human habituation.
Access to residential garbage is the primary cause of bear destruction in the community, followed by other attractants such as kitchen organics and domestic fruit trees.
Squamish also ranks fourth among the top five communities in BC for bear activity in 2019, according to the report.
The Conservation Officer Service also recently released six bear cubs back into the wild in Squamish. They were rescued last year in Squamish and transferred to the Critter Care Wildlife Society.
“This is a second chance for these bears, and also a second chance for us as a community to think about and change our behaviour so that we can do our part to prevent this cycle from happening again,” said Mayor Karen Elliott.
