The BC Conservation Officer Service (COS) killed 13 black bears in Ucluelet last year, making the town of roughly 2,000 residents the deadliest community in British Columbia for the animals.
For the small tourist town nestled on the west coast of Vancouver Island, it’s not the kind of list you want to be at the top of.
“Protecting bears is really a shared responsibility. I think the fact Ucluelet is number one on the deadliest communities in B.C. for black bears list reflects poorly on the town, particularly when it is such a tourist destination,” said Lesley Fox, executive director of the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals, a wildlife protection organization also known as Fur-Bearers.
Campbell River and Sechelt were ranked second on the government list with seven bears put down by COS while the neighbouring town of Tofino had two black bears shot dead.
“Ucluelet needs to invest – and that’s a key word, it’s going to cost some money – in education, infrastructure and enforcement. This all can’t just fall on the BC Conservation Officer Service. That agency is not resourced well enough to babysit Ucluelet,” said Fox.
“Investing and protecting wildlife should be a key pillar and a priority for Ucluelet because I think their reputation depends on it,” she continued.
Three of the 13 bears “dispatched” in the Ucluelet area were located at campgrounds out by the Tofino-Ucluelet Junction: one was in the Toquaht Nation community of Macoah and one was killed out at Mussel Beach, said COS Sgt. Daniel Eichstadter in a Nov. 25, 2025 presentation to Ucluelet council.
Eichstadter said out of the 268 black bear reports BC COS received within the Ucluelet area, 104 related to garbage.
Bob Hansen, WildSafe’s project lead for carts, says human-bear conflicts in Ucluelet have changed since the implementation of the residential cart system in the fall of 2022.
He stressed that a “very high” percentage of the carts are not anchored to the something stable, which leads to the start of the learning path to bears developing break-in skills.
“That single human behaviour is a big contributor I believe,” said Hansen during the Nov. 25 presentation to council.
District of Ucluelet staff and council are working alongside WildSafe and BC COS to transform Ucluelet into a Bear Smart Community.
“The District takes this issue very seriously,” said Abby Fortune, Ucluelet’s director of community planning.
She says they are currently drafting a wildlife attractant bylaw, which they will bring forward to council on Feb. 10. District staff are also in discussions with the developer of First Light, Ucluelet’s newest affordable housing complex on Marine Drive, and the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District to create a pilot project for communal garbage collection.
“Additionally, we are exploring options to potentially contract a Wildlife Safety Response Officer to help educate the public as well as safety and environmental law enforcement,” said Fortune in an email statement.
Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Government (Ucluelet First Nation) said they did not feel comfortable commenting on the issue as most of the black bears killed by COS were located outside of the nation’s Treaty Settlement Lands.
Fox hopes the community of Ucluelet can turn the situation around.
“I hope everyone can come together. There is reputational risk here. It is a tourist town and killing wildlife is not compatible with the values of Ucluelet. It’s just not. People love the wildlife, they love nature and the forest, and that’s why they go there,” said Fox.
Across the province, conservation officers “dispatched” 178 black bears and euthanized 33 black bears last year, for a total of 211. BC COS says that is the lowest overall number since the BC COS predator statistics were first published online, in 2011.
BC COS says “they have shifted to using updated terminology to better reflect the response taken by officers”. ‘Dispatch’ refers to a bear killed for public safety reasons, such as a human-wildlife conflict, while ‘euthanize’ refers to a bear killed for welfare reasons, such as an animal critically injured by a vehicle, says BC COS.
One bear was also struck and killed by a vehicle along Pacific Rim Highway 4 last summer, in the middle of the day, just north of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations community of Ty-Histanis.
Anyone that needs help securing bins or replacing carabiners is encouraged to email Chris Read at: [email protected].
Report all wildlife conflicts to the COS RAPP line at 1-877-952-7277.