Howe Sound Pulp and Paper (HSPP) was recognized recently for its comprehensive effort to make the mill and its employees "bear smart."
As a mill with a list of workers that can reach the 1,000 mark during parts of the season, HSPP became cognisant of the need to discourage wildlife from venturing into the grounds for food, particularly after one wayward bear had to be destroyed a few years back.
Experiments with possible solutions led the mill to bear proof their garbage dumpsters, using a simple and affordable retrofit they believe could set a new standard for industrial operations located in areas with diverse wildlife.
"They came up with a locking mechanism," said HSPP's shipping and yard services superintendent Glenn Dempster of the device that now adorns some 50 dumpsters at the mill. "The next part was, 'that's fine and dandy, we've done this, but how do we actually have citizens of our site go along with it?'"
Bears represented a two-fold problem for HSPP. On one hand, they were considered a danger to the mill's employees. At the same time, the danger existed that bears could be killed if they became too comfortable about wandering into the mill site.
The deliberations of HSPP's joint environment committee concluded that an effective strategy would require the participation of all the mill's employees, from top to bottom.
Accomplishing that feat required an internal communications strategy that embraced slogans like 'be fair to the bears' and 'a fed bear is a dead bear.'
"What we didn't want to do was reinvent the wheel. We wanted to look at communities that were successful in it," Dempster explained. "We talked about Canmore [Alta.], we talked about Whistler and Squamish."
But HSPP ultimately took a different approach, one they hope will create a working model for industrial communities across the province.
Much of the design came from one of the mill's own machinists, Dave Sanford.
Instead of purchasing expensive, bear-proof replacements for their bins, HSPP opted to use an affordable and simply designed locking mechanism for each of its bins.
The user pulls back on a metal bar holding the doors in place, and that metal bar is then locked into place by way of a metal bracket located on the dumpster's side.
"We didn't forget we were dealing with human beings, so if you make it difficult, you're probably going to ask too much," explained Dempster. "My own personal audits would be anecdotal at this point, but I am closing maybe one lock a week before, the lids were open all the time."
Sunshine Coast conservation officer Murray Smith, who helped the committee understand the nature of their bear problem, was at the mill May 2 to present HSPP with a plaque for their efforts.
"What's happening at the mill site is just tremendous to what we're trying to achieve, not just on the Sunshine Coast, but provincially," said Smith, recalling the not-so-distant past when schools, parks and businesses across the Coast still used plastic bins for garbage. "In British Columbia, we're cutting out the forest and dropping in industrial areas in the middle of the forest. We're having conflict all the time," he explained. "Having this example and just saying 'well, here's what one industrial company was able to do,' - it's just tremendous."
