Responding to recent requests by their partner communities and the Provincial Conservation Officer Service, the British Columbia Conservation Foundation (BCCF) announced May 28 that they were expanding their highly successful Bear Aware program to include education about other forms of wildlife that come into conflict in urban settings.
The new program, which will run under the title of WildSafeBC, strives to "reduce human-wildlife conflict through education, innovation and cooperation."
"Our goal is trying to keep wildlife, wild -and communities safe," said Frank Ritcey, provincial coordinator for WildSafeBC. "Much of what we learned through Bear Aware is transferable to the new program, but there is a lot of new ground to cover as well. Deer, cougar and coyotes all present different challenges in trying to get the public to first, understand why the animals are showing up in urban settings and secondly, what it takes to reduce the potential for conflict between humans and wildlife."
He said one of the ways that WildSafeBC will help educate the public about the extent of human-wildlife conflicts within the province is through its new mapping initiative called the wildlife alert and reporting program (WARP).
WARP displays a summary of weekly wildlife sightings and conflicts from around the province and can be viewed by going to www.bearaware.bc.ca/bearaware.
People can learn more about the program at www.facebook.com/wildsafebc.
At the local level Kim Drescher is the Sunshine Coast WildSafeBC community coordinator.
She said this spring has seen a vast increase in wildlife activity this year.
"In fact black bears were spotted in neighbourhoods as early as February. More local black bears have been destroyed in the past weeks than the whole of the 2012 season," she said.
Leaving garbage outside and unsecured acts as an open invitation to bears (and other wildlife) to come to your property for food. Wildlife can become "habituated" (lose their natural wariness of humans) and "food-conditioned" (to human refuse and attractants). Black bears are always hungry, they can be lured into and can adapt to urban settings as long as there is easily obtainable food (tasty garbage, high protein bird/livestock feed, windfall, odorous compost, etc). Once these animals are accessing a non-natural food source and are habituated they can pose a risk to public safety.
Some strategies to avoid putting out the welcome mat would be to thin out brush to reduce "cover" around your outdoor areas, clean barbecue's aerate compost regularly, remove birdfeeders, pick fruit/berries, feed pets indoors, use proper husbandry with chickens and other livestock, put up electric fencing to protect crops/livestock, ensure vehicles are closed with all attractants removed, avoid the use of outdoor freezers/fridges, place garbage on curb on the day of pick-up only.
For more information, Drescher can be reached at 604-885-6800 ex. 6476 or email [email protected].
-Submitted
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