{"id":80215,"date":"2025-08-19T03:14:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T03:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/80215\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T03:14:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T03:14:14","slug":"b-c-residents-reminded-about-bear-aware-messaging-ahead-of-fruit-harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/80215\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. residents reminded about bear-aware messaging ahead of fruit harvest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late summer, the worst\u00a0time of the year for black bears having to be put down, is approaching.<\/p>\n

An environmental group called the Fur-Bearers tracks statistics of bears killed by conservation officers each year, and the association has found that\u00a0September is an especially\u00a0dangerous time of year for bears that are\u00a0on the search for food. In 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2021, September was the month with the most bears killed by conservation officers in British Columbia, and in 2017, 2022 and 2023, it was the second-deadliest month for bears.<\/p>\n

During all of last year,\u00a0303 black bears were put down\u00a0across B.C., with two bears killed in Nanaimo.<\/p>\n

Black bears are killed by conservation officers if they becomes listed as ‘Category 1’ and an investigation determines they are\u00a0either a serious threat to public safety,\u00a0significant property damage has occurred, or the bear is injured or suffering from distressed health.<\/p>\n

According to BCCOS guidelines,<\/a>\u00a0animals listed in Category 1 include\u00a0those that have attacked, injured or\u00a0killed humans, domestic pets or livestock, and may also include bears that have entered temporary or permanent dwellings.<\/p>\n

“Generally speaking, Nanaimo compared to other municipalities ranks lower on the lists of black bears that are killed by the conservation officer service,” said\u00a0Lesley Fox, executive director of the Fur-Bearers. “However, Nanaimo certainly isn’t out of the woods, black bears are common on Vancouver Island and do find their way through Nanaimo and even the regional district, it’s not uncommon to see a black bear in Nanaimo or surrounding areas.”<\/p>\n

During the summer, Fox said residents with fruit trees can plan ahead. Those with fruit trees on the land who don’t expect to be able to pick them all in a timely manner can\u00a0connect\u00a0with a local gleaning program which involves volunteers collecting unwanted fruit from trees and gardens that would otherwise go to waste.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s a great way to promote food security and also helps homeowners manage their harvest, because it can be a lot of work to manage their fruit\u2026” Fox said. “People just need to be proactive and start making arrangements now, that way they’re prepared at the end of summer.”<\/p>\n

In Nanaimo,\u00a0since 2003 there has been a gleaning program<\/a> organized in partnership by\u00a0Nanaimo Foodshare Society\u00a0and Nanaimo Community Gardens, which can be reached at\u00a0250-816-4769.<\/p>\n

Reducing attractants is another\u00a0method people can use reduce the number of negative encounters between people and bears.<\/p>\n

“Clean up your attractants, we don’t want animals getting into the garbage because they get injured or get sick.”<\/p>\n

Earlier this year,\u00a0RDN\u00a0staff and directors discussed\u00a0several incidents involving bears utilizing organic carts as food sources. Additionally other animals are becoming habituated to collection carts that have been set out early on collection day or left out late.<\/p>\n

Fox said a bear becoming accustomed to going through\u00a0trash is highly preventable, and non-compliance issues\u00a0might be an opportunity for a district to take a zero-tolerance approach.<\/p>\n

“Co-existence is a daily intention, and attractant management, being bear-aware, those\u00a0are daily intentions and sometimes people, businesses and even bylaw can get complacent, we can get lazy.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"2024black-bears-killed-in-nanaimo-by-conservation-officers\"<\/p>\n

From 2015 to 2024, the lowest year for bears killed by conservation officers in Nanaimo was 2020, with zero deaths, while the highest was in 2022 with 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In terms of provincial numbers, 303 in 2024 is a sharp decline from\u00a0603 in 2023.\u00a0Fox said while the number is\u00a0lower than the previous year, she still perceives hundreds of dead bears as a government, education and enforcement failure.<\/p>\n

“It almost should be perceived like you see statistics sometimes for workplace injury, the goal is zero. We should target zero, and that might sound unrealistic to some, but that’s the ideal and we should be working towards that,” she said. “Until we can start seeing a decrease that’s measurable year\u00a0after year\u00a0after year, I’m not feeling overly optimistic or encouraged.”<\/p>\n

The biggest message she said people should take away is black bears are not to be feared, but people should be respectful and give a bear the space it needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of misinformation that can paint a picture that black bears are somehow aggressive or problematic. The reality is they’re a native species, they belong on the landscape, black bears are extremely intelligent, they’re curious, they have tight family bonds \u2013 especially a mother and her cubs. They belong here. Demonstrating some tolerance and compassion for these animals can go a long way.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late summer, the worst\u00a0time of the year for black bears having to be put down, is approaching. An…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[48483,49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-80215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-bearsnanaimo","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}