Thu 19 Oct 2006
Your Vancouver Sun
Jan Lanz and her Irish setter cross were attacked by a bear outside their Port Moody home.
Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, October 19, 2006
GREATER VANCOUVER - The number of complaints about conflict with bears foraging for food in residential neighbourhoods and attacking livestock in the Lower Mainland will top 3,000 this year, says the region’s senior conservation officer.
The number hit nearly 5,000 in 2004, said Rick Hahn. Complaints were as low as 1,144 as recently as 2003, he said, and the increase indicates a larger bear population. Attacks on livestock in particular are up this year, he said.
More than 650 black bears and 45 grizzlies are destroyed across the province each year because of conflicts with humans, and 28 bears have been killed so far this year in the Lower Mainland.
He said the first attack on a human in the Lower Mainland since 1995 came last weekend when a 57-year-old Port Moody woman was bitten on the leg by a black bear that attacked her dog in the woman’s front yard.
Efforts to trap the bear that was attracted to Jan Lanz’s yard by unsecured garbage have so far failed.
The bear population boom is due in part to residential development in areas where human habitat encroaches on bear habitat — not because bear habitat is destroyed, but because land-clearing actually increases the bears’ feeding grounds.
“Every time we cut into the forest it leaves more edge and the edge of the forest is where berries grow,” said Hahn, who administers the Lower Mainland conservation zone that extends from the North Shore through Greater Vancouver to Mission and Langley.
Black bears tend to forage at high altitude during the summer months, but return to lower areas in the fall. In a poor food year, they are attracted by livestock, fruit trees and unsecured garbage.
In 2004, North Shore communities adopted a non-lethal bear control program that uses loud fireworks, rubber bullets and threatening human behaviour to deter bears. The salaries of the two officers who run the project are paid by the municipalities.
At first, Hahn recalled, the area was so infested with bears that 60 animals had to be relocated east of Hope before the number of complaints dropped to a level that they could cope with.
A similar system is being tried out in Whistler, where bears are radio-collared so scientists can assess the effectiveness of the non-lethal strategies. Whistler is also close to certification as a Bear Smart community, a six-step preventive system that is intended to assess and address bear hazards and reduce human-bear conflict through education and remedial action.
Lanz says she has no intention of leaving her home after coexisting with local bears for 14 years.
She was bitten by a black bear sow after she intervened to save her dog after the Irish setter cross found the bear’s cubs. Lanz threw everything she had at the bear, including a garbage can and a cat-shaped brass ornament but ended up with four fang punctures in her thigh.
“I instinctively punched it in the head and it was stunned enough to let go,” she recalled. Lanz is up and walking, but is still recovering from the attack that started around midnight Saturday. “When I looked at my leg, it was just drenched in blood.”
There is an upside to the whole messy business, Lanz says. She owns a copy of a book called 50 Days Worse Than Yours. The back page of the book is blank. Jan Lanz finally has something to write.
rshore@png.canwest.com
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HOW TO BE SMARTER THAN YOUR AVERAGE BEAR
Port Moody recommends taking this action to avoid bear contact.
Remove attractants from around your home:
- Do not put garbage out until 7 a.m.
- Remove bird feeders until Dec. 1.
- Ensure barbecues are clean.
- Keep composts tidy and odour-free.
- Pick ripened fruit from trees and ground.
If you see a bear in a residential area or your yard:
- Remain calm.
- Keep well away and do not approach it.
- Make noise: From a safe location yell, ‘Hey bear, away bear!’ Use an air horn or bang pots and pans to discourage them.
- Do not quietly view or photograph a bear; let it know it is not welcome in your neighbourhood or yard.
Source: www.cityofportmoody.com
HOW TO GET SMART
To be certified Bear Smart a community must complete the following steps in consultation with the Ministry of Environment.
- Prepare a bear hazard assessment.
- Prepare a bear/human conflict management plan to address bear hazards and land-use conflicts.
- Revise planning and decision-making documents to be consistent with the bear/human conflict management plan.
- Implement a continuing public education program.
- Develop and maintain a bear-proof municipal solid waste management system.
- Implement Bear Smart bylaws to prohibit irresponsible management of attractants such as food and garbage.
Source: Ministry of Environment
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
October 19th, 2006 at 8:37 am
Poor B.C. bears! They are trying to co-exist with us but we are not cooperating.
I don\’t know if \\\’infested with bears\\\’ was the term a senior conservation officer really used when referring to last year\\\’s bears on the North Shore but I hope it was a misquote. Bears are not vermin, they are highly evolved and intelligent mammals, similar to primates. The only reason the North Shore has bears in backyards is due to the high level of unnatural and natural attractants. This mis-management of attractants draws bears down the mountain from miles and miles away.
Yes, even if there was zero attractants around we would still see the odd bear following historical wildlife corridors and a few of those bears may become a nuisance due to their curiosity and social behavior but we wouldn\’t have to taking them away in paddy wagons and dumping them in known bear country to be set upon by resident bears….this more often than not results in a bear death or starvation, especially when cubs are involved.
I hope the municipalities sooner, rather than later, bring in workable solutions and by-laws for the residents to help bears and people co-exist.
So far gov\\\’ts, prov and municipal, across BC spend millions of dollars in reactive bear management and public appeasement strategies and very little in by-law and the purchase of bear proof garbage bins and dumpsters. Until this is reversed, bears will be killed for what they might do to keep people as safe as possible. No magic guarantees that this is going to keep people truly safe either.
Reduce the attractants, reduce the problems, reduce the bear kills and nature will look after the rest.
Barb M
Bear Matters BC
October 25th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
While I sympathize for Jan Lanz and her dog after their recent confrontation with a mother bear and her two cubs, I am sure they were not the only ones terrified at the scene. The incident was likely equally, if not more frightening for the sow and her cubs. Fortunately for Jan and her dog, they escaped with non life threatening injuries and are recovering at home. Not so lucky is the mother bear and her cubs for which a trap was set out, and if caught would be killed.
The bears would likely not have been there had Ms. Lanz properly disposed of her garbage. Yet even now, after a woman has been bitten by a bear in her own yard, this neighbourhood continues to be covered in bear attractants. After visiting the site, I found numerous piles of garbage located in the woods just behind Ms. Lanz’s house and also a rotting metal garbage can with debris coming out the bottom. In addition, I saw some residents who had birdfeeders located in areas that are easily accessible to bears and also unpruned fruit trees with berries lying all over the ground.
What will it take for a neighbourhood living in bear habitat to take responsibility for their actions? A bear and the cubs she was trying to protect are sitting on death row because human garbage was improperly disposed of. It’s not the first time, and so long as the ignorance continues, it won’t be the last.