The recent spate of cold weather in the region is sending bears out of town for the winter but that doesn't mean people should start getting complacent about their garbage, officials say.
If garbage becomes easy to get, bears will come back - and some may decide not to hibernate at all.
"If there's a food source, they're not really going to hibernate," said James Kelly, a provincial conservation officer who works in the Fraser Zone, which includes the Tri-Cities.
Kelly said cold weather doesn't chase the bears into hibernation - it's the lack of food that sets their biological clocks to sleep. That means if food is still around when the cold weather hits, they'll stay awake.
The 2011 bear season has been one of the busiest in recent years in the Tri-Cities, with 17 bears destroyed for garbage habituation or because of car accidents or other injuries. A least one bear was relocated and six bear cubs were sent to Critter Care in Langley in the hopes they can be rehabilitated and released back into the wild next spring.
Kelly, a Coquitlam resident who was transferred here this year, spent much of his summer following up on bear complaints, although his job also entails enforcing hunting rules and environmental regulations. He said bears were active in the Tri-City region this year because the berry crop was poor.
"[Younger bears] kind of get pushed down the mountain and end up following the greenbelts, where they get into garbage. Then they're hooked and nothing's going to get them off garbage."
Each year, 10,000 calls are made to the Provincial Conservation Officer Service's 24-hour toll-free line and those dealing with bears in Mission, Maple Ridge and the Tri-Cities are passed on to Kelly and his team to decide if the problem bears pose a safety risk.
Sometimes, they can nip a problem in the bud by talking to a property owner and encouraging them to remove bear attractants. But if the bear has been returning to the area daily looking for garbage or breaking into homes and garages, further action must be taken. They will then set a trap for the bear and relocate it if it's young and not yet habituated to garbage.
If the bear is a repeat offender, however, it will be killed and Kelly is always concerned when he sets a trap that he'll nab the wrong bear.
"Catching it in the act is best," Kelly said, "It's a good scenario to witness a bear doing what people say he's doing."
Sometimes, officers have to deal with a bear in a public area and have to assess the situation to figure out the safest way of dealing with it. An officer can try to scare it back into the forest with bear bangers, bean bags or rubber bullets; he can tranquillize it if he can get the bruin to climb a tree; occasionally, the bear might be shot on site if the conditions are ideal.
But if none of these situations present themselves, Kelly said, they'll set a trap and hope to catch it later.
"If we can't get a clean shot and the situation poses a danger, we let him come down and leave. Maybe the experience will be bad enough and he'll leave or he'll be back tomorrow."
Public safety is obviously foremost in his mind, but Kelly admits it would be better if people just took care of their bear attractants. Reminding residents, farmers and business owners about their responsibilities is another important part of his job.
"If there is no garbage, a bear will pass through but it won't stop. It's looking for a reward. If there's no reward, it won't come back."
Working closely with local authorities, Kelly spends a lot of his time visiting property owners and looking for solutions to their bear problems. Lately, he has been trying to convince blueberry and hobby farmers to use electric fences to keep out bears. He can walk onto any property to see if there's a bear attractant problem and if he finds one, such as an open dumpster or garbage lying around, he can issue a Dangerous Wildlife Protection Order; if the problem isn't removed, he can slap the property owner with a $575 fine.
"It's a public safety issue and the liability is on you," Kelly said.
PUTTING THE BEARS TO SLEEP
In Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody, officials are seeing a drop in bear complaints and believe that bears are getting ready to enter their dens beneath old-growth stumps in the mountains and valleys. Around here, hibernation usually occurs in November and December.
In Coquitlam, Bear Aware co-ordinator Drake Stephens is reminding people to put food in their green cans because that is picked up first on garbage day and in Port Coquitlam, bear complaints are down because residents in the south side of the city are now locking up their garbage with bear-proof Critter Guard locks.
Port Moody's environmental technologist believes believes bears are beginning to head out to dens in the Anmore valley. But Rick Saunier warns residents not to get complacent or the bears will stay awake.
He remembers one Christmas (before the city issued animal-resistant bin) when a bear showed up to dine on someone's left-over turkey carcass.
"He had a great holiday meal," Saunier recalled. "Everything but the cranberries."
