Bear Aware
Protect your home and your neighbourhood.
- Lock it up – secure your garbage and your kitchen waste in either a wildlife-resistant enclosure (e.g. garage or shed) or by using a Bear Aware™ approved wildlife resistant lock
- Set it out – set out your carts at the curb no later than 8:00 am on collection day (Wednesday is residential pick-up)
- Use bear proof dumpsters – these bear-proof dumpsters are for wet and animal attractant waste only such as garbage, food packaging with food still on/in it, sugary liquids, fruits & vegetable residue, and all edible items. Do not use any of the District’s dumpsters for recycling of empty cans, bottles, newspapers, magazines, or for rags, dry packaging, construction debris, household junk, or any trash that is not an animal attractant.
Secure your garbage!
- Bears attracted to neighbourhoods by garbage become problems for you, your neighbours (including kids!), and, eventually, for conservation officers and police.
- It is your responsibility to keep your garbage away from bears.
Protect all of your neighbours--including bears--by keeping trash and other attractants away from bears.
Our carelessness is creating “problem bears”.
Bears have a keen sense of smell, and garbage or other food sources could easily attract a bear to your neighbourhood. Once bears become used to eating garbage and other un-natural foods, they tend to stay close to communities where they can find easy sources of food.
Destroying Bears or Moving Them is Not The Answer
Each year, about 950 Black Bears and 50 grizzlies have to be destroyed to protect the public.
As more people — and more garbage — move into traditional bear habitat, more bears are becoming garbage-conditioned, and have to be destroyed. It’s a terrible waste of life. It’s also costly: the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks’ Conservation Officer Service spends about $1 million a year dealing with bear/people conflicts.
Bears which are causing problems are sometimes moved, or “translocated”, especially females with cubs, grizzlies, or bears which are not yet garbage-conditioned. About 150 bears are translocated each year, but it doesn’t always work. Bears will travel hundreds of kilometers to return to known food sources. Other bears are chased from their new surroundings by resident bears, are killed by dominant bears, or starve to death.
For more information on being Bear Aware™, visit www.bearaware.bc.ca. For more tips on Bear Safety visit the BC Parks website.