The Conservation Officer Service (COS) is raising an alarm about a bear family that faces an uncertain future if they become conditioned to human food.
A mother bear and two cubs are currently moving through the Garibaldi Estates (as far west as Amblepath) and Ravenswood neighbourhoods and have found garbage from numerous totes that have either been left unlocked or are damaged and unable to lock.
COS is monitoring this bear family closely and in partnership with the District of Squamish. It is requesting the community do their part to keep this family wild.
Here are some things COS and the district want people to do:
Store totes in a garage or shed if possible.
If you must store totes outdoors, anchor them so they cannot be tipped.
Reduce odours by freezing odorous food scraps (meat and fish) and place them in your organic tote the morning of collection.
Keep totes locked and stored away from the curb until the morning of collection.
Place totes curbside for collection only on the morning of collection and never the night before.
Rinse all recycling.
Manage fruit/nut trees and consider a portable electric fence to protect your harvest.
Don’t let bears feel comfortable on your property. From a safe place shout, bang an object, make noise, or use an air horn to encourage the bear to move on.
Walk your property and remove attractants i.e. low-hanging birdfeeders, birdfeeders without seed catch trays, pet food and greasy barbeques.
Ensure beehives and urban hens have electric fencing that is working properly.
“Once a bear has become food-conditioned and human-habituated, there are limited options for its management. A tragic outcome can be avoided if every person does their part,” COS says.
Please help by contacting the bylaw department with any wildlife-attractant bylaw concerns at 604.815.5067 or bylaw@squamish.ca.
If you have a wildlife sighting or encounter, please contact the COS hotline at 1.877.952.7277
GFL can be contacted for broken totes or locks at 604.892.5604 or squamishtotes@gflenv.com
Robert says
Good luck with GFL doing anything…
Francine Lessard says
Not rinsing your recycling is an act of putting the whole recycling process in failure.
It’s like putting garbage in the recycling the same goes for people who recycling in the garbage.
They don’t have the means of hiring a person to sort this mess people need to figure it out…recycling is a sad state of affairs.