The city of Coquitlam is warning residents to remove all bear attractants as bruins are still wandering the city.
In a Facebook post last week, the city noted a bear was spotted in the New Horizons area.
“During the winter, natural food sources are scarce and active bears will be seeking unnatural food sources," the city said.
By removing food attractants, such as waste carts, bears will go elsewhere for food, the post said.
“Allowing wildlife to access garbage presents a risk to your home and your neighbours’ [homes] and could result in a $500 fine,” the post further stated.
Coquitlam’s call for people to clean up their yards comes as the province reports more than 700 enforcement actions by the BC Conservation Officer Service in a bid to reduce human wildlife conflicts.
During neighbourhood audits, which also took place in the Tri-Cities, conservation officers patrolled to ensure attractants were properly secured, food was removed from trees and electric fencing was used around livestock.
Of the 732 actions in B.C. this year, officers issued 355 Dangerous Wildlife Protection Orders, which require a property owner to remove an attractant or face a $575 fine.
“Every year, too many bears and other wildlife are destroyed because their natural behaviour has been altered due to easy access to non-natural food sources like garbage. Habituated bears lose their fear of people and gain appetites for non-natural food, putting both themselves and communities at risk,” according to Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, which issued the release.
While relocation is preferred to destruction for food-conditioned bears, the release notes that relocated wildlife often fail to adapt to their new habitat. As a result, they travel long distances, starve or return to their original area or another community in search of easy food.
In a related story, 30 bears in the Tri-Cities were destroyed this year for being habituated to humans and conditioned to seeking out non-natural food, including waste from green carts left out overnight or set out early.
