Bears shot in Rossland

Perhaps the "bear problem" is a "people problem".....too many new people moving in to live here, and people coming for various vacation get-aways, neither group of which has the slightest idea how to live around wildlife and do their bit to keep everyone & everything safe??.....I grew up in the area and I have never seen the amount of bears killed as in the past several years. There has to be a better way, so that the bears don't always end up paying the price for people's lack of attention / consideration / common sense. Notification of the issue and proper behaviour for the area to all newcomer residents & vacationers might be at least a start.

Mikospeeps, agreed.

And I also think the City and Bylaw needs to be more proactive with this. Otherwise nothing is going to change – it will just get worse with all the new housing being built and people moving in from areas where they've not had to be so aware of bears.

 

Let's start by gett rid of the chickens in town..

Unless people have been keeping their chickens inside their vehicles or in their houses, that isn't the problem, as reported, with bears. I get keeping chickens has it's own problems when you live in the middle of wildlife, but if the owners are aware of the risk and willing to take responsibility for the fact that they might lose a few now and again (to coyotes most likely as well), then I don't have a problem with that. It's people that leave their house doors / vehicle doors open / unlocked, their windows in their cars down, food stuff within reach of the bears in both those locations, and improperly looked after garbage / garbage cans. Now, if the chickens have a hand in all of that, then I agree, they should be arrested...or maybe cooked :)  

I completely agree with you Mikospeeps!  

Unfortunately the chickens are food for the bears....my sister had hers killed by them.  Everything else is maintainable but imo chicken are just food, out in the open. 

Mikospeeps you think loosing a chicken or 2 is no big deal... probably a coyote? Wake up. This poor momma was eating chickens all over town this year before some idiot filmed her breaking into the van at red mountain because of a peanut butter Sammy inside. 
Before we were all chickens in town and the garbage was at the dump we had no bears in town. Please. Get some knowledge about our town...

You CAN keep chickens in a place that bears inhabit...but it is a lot of work...we had chickens in the Fruitvale countryside, and the only thing we lost our chickens to was skunks & raccoons...it's incredible what a small space those two critters can crawl through to get their chicken dinner...and we kept our chickens locked up every night in a "fort knox" -type coop. If you have easy-to-get food, bears are opportunists and will get whatever is close at hand and easy...why not? Don't we do the same? But we shouldn't be the reason for their death because we leave things open that shouldn't be, or edible things in places they shouldn't be, and then freak out and scream blue murder for the conservation officer to "do something"......which means, a bullet. Bears wander through my yard....I don't care....I've seen them rip a garbage bag or two apart...again, I don't care (and thankfully neither do my neighbours)....cuz bears do what bears do, and it was my or my neighbour's fault that particular morning for whatever was put in the garbage or for not putting it out properly. The same way they learn where the food is, they learn where the food isn't anymore, and will leave areas alone, tho' they may wander through, because.....oh yeah, we live on top of a mountain in the middle of the woods where there have been bears FOREVER....

i know where we live. Oops I left my garbage out,i didn't put it away properly...perhaps your the reason those poor bears were shot?!

Hutch, I never said losing a chicken was no big deal; as said in another post, I've lost my share....but if you're going to keep chickens, then assess the risk is what I was meaning...and leaving a peanut butter sandwich in a van with the windows down is asking for trouble that didn't have to be. On the contrary, chickens would be trouble all the time, but it CAN be done and has been done in many places where friends have had hobby farms. What I heard in the descriptions of all the bears I've heard about being shot is, they broke into cars and houses.....and like I said, in those cases it wasn't about chickens.

Chickens get killed because chicken owners leave food in chicken pens.... as to be expected, they are fed scraps.  Smells good to bears.  Cars get broken into because people leave food or wrappers in cars.  Both problems = people.  If your car was broken into your the problem, if your chickens are killed your also to blame. Let's let the bears live with us and not create problems or lure them into death traps............

I'm a long time resident of this town, grew up here.  Living with bears is a part of living in this community and it can be done with minimal impact to both sides.  I've never raised chickens but I know many who do and have worked on a farm in Happy Valley that had a large number of chickens.  One of the long time owners of the farm particiapted in one of the backyard chicken walks hosted by this town and commented on the construction of chicken coops by people new to rasing chickens.  She pointed out that many of the coops wouldn't stand a chance against a bear that wanted in and if the peope wanted to be succesful in rasing chickens in this town they would have to put more thought into the construction of their backyard coops.  Now if a person living in Happy Valley on the edge of town can keep their chickens safe for over 50 years, I believe it can be done anywhere in this town.

  Over the past 5 years we've had a marked increase in bears being put down in town, and it's almost always a case of improperly managed attractants.  This can include garbage, food left in vehicles, compost, dog food stored in porches and mudrooms.  And I also believe that people new to town freak out too much when they see a bear, calling a CO when a bear is hanging in your yard isn't acceptable behavoir for living in this community.  Long time residents of this town enjoy seeing bears peacefully roaming around town in the spring.  Yes, unfortunately they do sometimes become garbage bears which is tragic, but most (not all) cases are due to garbage being made accessable to them. I had a bear in my garage last week beause I left the door open, my fault entrirely, not the bear's.  And if you somehow end up with a bear in your house, you messed up somewhere, plain and simple.

  To say that there was a time when there were never bears in town is simply not true. That's like stating there wasn't wildlife in the forrest surrounding our town.  In the past we've been better at co-exisitng with bears.

I've lived here 20+ years, seen many bears, thats why I moved here, the small easy going slow pace seeing wildlife regularly stress free way of living. Unfortunately thats changing. So much in the last 5-10 years it's hard to recognize sometimes, and honestly I'm tired of seeing the pace get so much quicker, so many more people swarming into the woods, I honestly feel bad and sorry for any animal out there as we keep invading THEIR space just because we as humans, keep getting greedier and wanting more and more. We're a f**ked up society, and it's sad to witness. 

Here's a link for a trailer for the Documenry On the Edge of Eden, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjv1l5XEykI

I was fortunate enough to catch this when it came through Rossland a few years back with a Q and A provided by the film maker, it provides a very different view of bears and insights on how to live with them.

Why are we still talking about bad bears? STOP curbside garbage pick up...put a garbage area outside of town for everyone to drop and stop having this conversation. 

 

Julie Parker

I don't belive curbside pickup is the only factor in the problem, it includes other factors as well such as how people manage attratctants around theor property and vehicles and best practices while living in bear country.  Not to mention that a grabage area to drop off our garbage out of town would most likely come at an increase to our taxes, again (my property taxes ahve gone up $1100 over 13 years).  And of course a large garbage drop off is going to attarct bears jist the same, only it will be out of town, not really dealing with the problem, jist reloacting it.  Out of sight out of mind.  And for those that don't own a vehicle or have access to one, it's not really a great situation and could lead to people dumping theor garbage where it's convienient, creating more problems.

But while we're on the garbage subject, why do I have to pay twice for garbage collection?  As a home owner I pay for garbage collection on my monthly utilities and then still have to buy stickers for each bag collected.

Dstrelioff - i agree, I don't believe it's curbside pickup that's the problem and you made great points regarding people that don't have vehicles or are immobile and relocating the "problem" by the relocation of bins around town. 

That's a Huge increase in property taxation in the past 13 years but I know we have had major infrastructure increases within that time too;  Columbia street in 2012, Washington a couple years later and LeRoi just a couple years ago.  These were definitely not cheap projects. 

My taxes went up by approximately the same amount, but in 3 years rather than 13... There have been expensive projects, and we also seem to be a town of constant gardening. 

There must be a better way of dealing with bears without shooting them, particularly if they are being a 'nuisance' to us humans rather than aggressive. We all go 'ahhh' and 'only in Rossland' when we see videos of mama and cubs on the highway, and great efforts are made to bring electronic highways signs. But most people are silent, including the City, when bears are killed here.

This is very sad to me. I would also like to think that the majority of Rosslanders feel the same and don't want to hear of a bear being shot. Here are my thoughts and ideas for some possible solutions to this problem. Not everyone is going to like them, but I am going to throw them out there anyway. There are a lot of strong-smelling attractants in town that entice bears into the city limits. Once they are in town there is also a lot of not-so-strong food smells that get them in trouble, like food left in a car or a house door left open on a hot day. For example, chicken coops are a strong attractant to bears, and even though your chicken coop is electrified, which will stop the bear from getting to your chickens or the food scraps you feed them, the problem is that your chicken coop has enticed the bears into town and that's where the problems start. Here are 5 strong attractants for bears and some ideas on how to limit bears in town.

Chicken coops: should be limited to people who farm for a living only.

Garbage: Large fines given to people who put their garbage out at night.

Composting: To be banned and have a community composting area outside of the city limits run by a group of dedicated gardeners. Perhaps Ferraros would give their veggie and fruit waste for composting.

Fruit Trees: All fruit trees like cherries, apples, pears and plums to be removed from vacant lots or areas managed by the city of Rossland. Also, large fines to be given to people who allow their fruit to rot on the trees or if they are left on the ground for extended periods of time. An option to pay the fine or remove the tree at the owner's expense could be available. Repeat offenders would also receive increasing fine amounts.

Large fines to be given to people who attract bears into town by other means such as garbage left in a shed or food left in a car. This would be difficult to manage but if you have to call the CO because a bear is in your car or house a fine should be given.

Let me know your thoughts and if you have better solutions. Let try to limit bears being shot! :)

A few thoughts in response:

Chicken coops can easily be built and maintained in a fashion that don't attarct bears and are also resilient to them.  Several people in town have proven this point.  Also, it's not exaclty fair to take away a person's ability to provide food for themselves especially given rising food prices and current levels of unemployemnt.

I agree with garbage not to be left out at night, absolutely no reason for this, and if a person does so, they're asking for it to be ripped apart not just by bears but other animals.

Banning composting is ridiculous.  It won't end up at a communal compost, it will end up in the garbage.  One main purpsoe of composting is to reduce waste.  Banning it will only increase waste.  A well kept compsot pile or bin does not smell, I've done this for years.  Turning over and mixing your pile will help it break down much faster and keep the smell down, as does layering cardboard and newspaper.  If you have garden space, dig a hole and bury it, it's literally gone in a week. I've done this for over a decade and not once have I had animals, bears or otherwise in my compost beacuse it doesn't smell.

Fruit trees provide food for bears getting ready for hibernation in the fall and it's part of their natural diet, if we're so isnsistent on picking every last huckleberry in their habitiat, what do you expect? Yes, fruit can attract bears, but bears eating fruit in a person's yard or empty lot will help keep them from becoming garbage bears.  Those are the ones that become problems. Instead of people panicking when they see a bear eating fruit in their yard and calling the CO, calm the f**k down and let them eat what is part of their natural diet.

Fines for garbage in your shed or garage?  Really?  Where else are we supposed to keep it?  However, wherever garbage is kept should be secure enough to deter bears.

If you end up with a bear in your vehicle or house, that's your fault.  Plain and simple, shouldn't ever happen.  

Fining the hell out of people is sort of a solution.  People pay attention when it starts to cost them money, but what it really comes down to is education, awareness and respect for the environment we live in, not punishing people in ever increasing amounts. Anybody who has lived here for an extended period knows that it takes a bit of effort to live respectively with our resident wildlife but it's acheivable.

@Dstrelioff. Like I said in my post, just thoughts and ideas to get people thinking and not everyone is going to like them. 

Chicken coops, the problem is that chicken coops are an attractant for bears, sure you can fortify them so bears don't get your chickens but that's not the point, the bears are attracted to them then they move on to other food/attractants in the area. As to your point about rising food prices and unemployment, they seem a little weak to me because if you can afford to buy a house in Rossland, pay the taxes in Rossland and build an electrified or heavily fortified chicken coop and feed your chickens on top of that then I would think you could buy some eggs and chicken breasts. 

Banning composting is ridiculous. I disagree, it would take some effort and time to maintain a community compost on the edge of the city limits but if it reduces the number of bears being shot I think it would be worth it. Anyone who remembers the old Rossland dump remembers there not being many bears at all coming into town. Also as to maintaining your chicken coop and composting pile so it doesn't attract bears, people being people don't always follow the necessary steps or care to do this at the level you have and they are the problem, sure you can try and educate them but there will always be a large number of people don't. 

Fruit trees, bears were and can live quite fine without eating the fruit from the huge number of cultivated fruit trees in the city limits. They were here and thrived long before Rossland was settled. Yes, they do attract bears and then bears get used to being in town and around people and that's the problem.

Fines for garbage in your shed or garage?  Yes, fines if it's determined that you are attracting bears into the area, be it garbage in the garden shed or food in your car if you have to call the CO to remove a bear from your car or house then yes a fine should be applied.

 

It's going to take some work and yes people are going to have to sacrifice doing some things the way they have for years. Let us as a community try to stop or even limit the number of bears being shot it, will be worth it.

Composting, when done right, isn't a bear attractant. When you add juicy produce, mix it in and cover it with old compost...It'll radiate the smell of dirt instead of decomposing vegetables.   With proper education and knowledge everything can be managed.
 
I'm not sure banning chicken coops is the answer but possibly in order to have one you must pass a certificate program (run by the city?) in bear awareness,and chicken maintenance or urban farming? It would produce revenue for the city and hopefully create a safer, more bear aware, community.  And yes, violations to the certification would mean ticketing and eventual removal of said chickens. 

 

The 'City' will be watching this thread but never comment. I would be nice to see them taking the lead on this matter for once. In particular, to make sure that newcomers who are encouraged to come and live in Rossland understand how to adjust to living in 'bear country'.

No s**t Not_quite_so_new_. The city doesn't give a rats ass, all they see is dollar signs. Every f**king year, the same s**t, and nothing gets fixed. 

And sorry for the profanities, it's just a topic that means a lot to me (bears) but every year it's the same sad story. 

As stated, education and awareness will go leaps and bounds farther than telling people what they can and can't do.  Just go ahead and try to tell me that I'm not allowed to compost, and I'll let you know how backwards an idea like that is.  Ridiculous as stated. I've lived here for 30 years and not once has myself or my family had bears in the compost.  And I'll always allow bears to eat fruit off my trees, because as stated, it keeps them out of the garbage.  The bears are already in town becasue we live in a forest, we're in their habitat, they were here first long before Rossland was settled.

  Yes we've been doing these things for years. Without the amount of bears being currently shot.  What's changed?  The demorgarphic of people in town.  Education and awareness will go much further than pissing people off.  

Just curious: every time there is a bear conversation, someone will inevitably say: 'bears were here first. This is their habitat'. What exactly is human habitat then? A city??LOL No thanks!  People seem to forget that wildlife was/is everywhere. Grizzlies used to live on the prairies! Lets just find a way to live in a mutually beneficial way, as much as possible. (Spoiler: it won't always be *perfectly* possible) 

Hi Stephanie, I prefer rural or semi-rural living too. But the human population growth is huge and we use so much of the Earth's resources, and cause or contribute to other animal species becoming extinct of threatened. We are supposed to be the 'intelligent' species. So it seems to be that we should be able to work out a way of living with other animal species without going around shooting them just because we find them to be a nuisance to how we want to live. (If there is a really dangerous, aggressive bear that is different, but most of those shot are just being 'nuisances'.)

 

 

The good thing about living in a democracy is, there is nothing stopping like-minded people from forming a group/association/committee/ etc. to promote / educate / advance the cause of what is seen as unfair/cruel/just plain wrong....if anyone is in on that, feel free to comment or email me.

There are some really good conversations going around here. And some good ideas. And I love that there are so many people here who love the bears and want to protect them. Let's channel that positive energy.
I have been volunteering at an orphaned bear cub rehab shelter, where they release them back into the wild at the same time as their mothers would have "kicked them out". I have also been reading a lot about bear behaviour and discussing it with other "bear people". I posted something on Facebook after the bears were shot and will re-posted it here. It is long, but I think worth reading. My main concerns are prevention and where we can't prevent the loss of a bear, at least save the cubs. 
Before I re-post though ... a few things.
1) Newcomers are not the only problem, but there are a few people (including someone at the city - yes, the city is concerned) working on how to provide education for newcomers. Unfortunately, WildSafe should be providing education, but they are restricted on presentations due to COVID this year, and because Fruitvale and Trail are keeping them very busy. 
2) WildSafe has toured the city on nights before garbage day, and they put warnings on garbage put out at night, but they find very, very few people do this. 
3) A few of us have been trying to figure out where our problems with garbage and compost is ... is it improperly stored or is it because in some areas the garbage isn't picked up until later in the day? How prevalent is the bears-getting-into chicken coops problem? There are a lot of questions that need to be answered before we know exactly what our problem is. (I really like the idea of a "certification" for owning chickens - and the only real way to protect a chicken coop is a properly set up electric fence.) I don't know how to get all the answers - I wish I had the time to do a big project like this.
4) Yes - bears are opportunists. They have an amazing sense of smell and they will go exploring for where that smell is coming from. But, if they can't access whatever it is, or they are discouraged, early on, they will keep on going. They can also be taught (see below), if it is early on, that they are not welcome when they come sniffing around "our stuff". We can encourage them to move on. 
5) The RDCK and RDKB are currently looking at introducing community composting. The most likely scenario is curbside pick-up, taken to a central, very secure, compost area - they have found property  for this in the Salmo area for RDKB. I am putting together feedback to send to them while they are in the exploratory stage. There are 2 pilots running - Grand Forks has the curbside pickup model and it caused more bear problems because of improperly stored green bins, in between pickup days. New Denver has a very succssful program based on a number of community composts in town - 1 WildSafe BC tested "Joracan" for about every 30-35 people. I can't figure out exactly what happens to the compost after that - still researching.
And here's some of my post from FB:

FIRST
Bears will try to expand their territories and the areas where they find food. There are only a few studies on black bears and their social behaviour, but the studies that are out there show that they have a complex society. IF they don’t find any RESISTANCE (from you) to snacking on first, your clover, and next your compost and garbage, then your chickens and then that tasty burger wrapper you left in your car … then they consider that you have said that it’s ok for them to claim this as part of their territory and/or food source. You haven’t defended your territory, so it’s not yours. You have shown them that you are ok with sharing your food with them or letting them claim your home as their territory.
We all need to stop taking cute photos of bears when they are first hanging around eating clover on our lawns, or trying to get at bird-feeders on decks or just sniffing around decks and cars. Instead of stopping to take a photo, IMMEDIATELY tell the bear this is your home and your food and you are not sharing. Be assertive, raise your voice, clang pots and pans. If you wait until it escalates to them getting into your car or garage or house, then it’s too late. They will just look at you and say – huh? You told me it was ok to hang around and share your food – what’s your problem now? That’s when people (and this comment makes me really mad) say “the bear isn’t scared of me". Why would it be scared of you?
We will never stop bears from coming into town – this is part of their corridor, it’s part of their home. But, we can stop them from lingering and claiming our homes as their territory or as part of their food source. By doing this, we can reduce the number of bears that have to be killed each year.

SECOND
The provincial government has outdated, inconsistent and vague policies about what wildlife (including bears) can be rehabilitated. We need consistent and clear guidelines so that they cannot be misinterpreted or inconsistently applied. The wildlife rehabilitators in this province can provide this information from their decades of experience, but we need the province to listen. Mayor Moore and I worked with a well-respected wildlife rehabilitator to draft a proposal that was endorsed by Rossland’s city council and then went to the region. If it had passed at the regional meeting, it would have gone to the UBCM (Union of BC Municipalities) meeting in September, and if it had passed there, the province would have had to consider it. But, due to some confusion about local autonomy and ungrounded concerns about shelter capacity, it didn’t pass the regional meeting. We are going to try again, and this time get a strong campaign in the other municipalities in this region, to provide education and to gain support. However, it will take many months before this can happen.

 

In the meantime, you can write to your MLA for Kootenay West (Katrine Conroy: katrine.conroy.MLA@leg.bc.ca and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy (George Heyman): ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca
If you would like some words to write, this is what I suggest:
“Recently in Rossland, a mom black bear and 2 cubs were destroyed due to escalating behaviour looking for food. This behaviour was deemed to be a danger to the public by the COS. This was preventable and there are many efforts ongoing to educate the public on how to secure and remove wildlife attractants and encourage bears to move on before they escalate their behaviour.
However, the current process for making decisions to rehabilitate or euthanize all species of juvenile wildlife is inconsistent throughout the Province of BC and is left to various local authorities’ personal opinion; some of whom lack training, expertise or experience in wildlife rehabilitation or assessment.
There are also other reasons that wildlife is orphaned and is most often human-caused (road kill, hunted, habitat interference), and the general public does not want orphaned wildlife to be left to die or shot as is often the current practice.
How decisions about rehabilitation are made vary from region to region across the province. When personnel change, the informal procedures and decision-making change as well, thus perpetuating inconsistency. We need a province wide commitment to rehab orphaned and /or injured juvenile wildlife if shelter space is available.”

Thank you Sue for taking the time to clarify the many elements of what is happening to the bears.

I too, really like the idea of a certification and enforcement program for city dwelling chickens.  Mayor Moore and yourself have been doing a lot of work that people are not aware of.  The information about the failed proposal that would have gone to the UBCM with the updated guidelines is on the City website.

I do not have the link at this time, but if anyone wants it, I will track it down and post it.

As you know, an information package for newcomers and for any residents who want it is in the very early development stages.  The objective is to educate about living in bear country as well as the many other wild species that are at some degree of risk due to humans not understanding their needs. 

If anyone would like to join this volunteer group, or anyone with the skills to assist in any way would be much appreciated.  Please email me at lisawegner63@gmail.com with the subject header 'bear aware'.

And, as posted in the recent press release in regards to the contract renewal with Alpine -

  1. Bylaw Enforcement: Based on numerous complaints that are continuously received, in addition to the recent surge in wildlife conflict incidents, the City will be fully implementing and enforcing its Wildlife Attractant Control Bylaw. Residents are asked to report any know violations to City Hall. Additionally, residents are asked to report bear-specific incidents to either:

    a. Rossland WildSafeBC Community Coordinator @ 250 512-7925 rossland@wildsafebc.com, or b. BC Conservation Office @ 1-877-952-RAPP (7277).

For any additional information, or if you have general questions or concerns regarding your service, please visit www.rossland.ca, or contact either Rossland City Hall at 250-362-7396 or Alpine Disposal and Recycling (Trail Regional Office) at 1-250-367-0099.