One of the best things about living where we do is the daily opportunity to see wildlife eyeball to eyeball.
There are the touching times when we see an innocent fawn still sporting baby spots stop its mom in the middle of a busy side street for a milk top-off, or when we see the baby's relatives sauntering down our street with, "What you looking at, Willis?" looks on their faces.
However, our encounters with untamed critters become not so wonderful when a coyote takes our well-loved pet, when a pugnacious bear traps itself in a family car and proceeds to rip it to shreds in an effort to escape, or when a cougar prowls around a local elementary school.
While it's easy to pontificate on how we've taken over the animals' native territory and how stupid some of us are when it comes to disposing of our domestic garbage or our camping remains, the fact is that we do live here, and unless we want one of our beloved pets, our farm livestock or, god forbid, our child to become coyote or cougar crunch or a bear's breakfast, it behooves us to practise good wildlife husbandry.
For many seasons the outstanding program Bear Aware (morphed into WildSafeBC this year) has had as its mandate to teach locals how to make critter encounters a win-win.
Among the standard cautions is keeping garbage in the house until as close to pick-up time as possible, making compost critter proof, picking fruit promptly including any windfall, keeping small pets indoors and teaching children how to behave if they should meet a wild animal.
In that vein, this Monday, July 15, the Sunshine Coast Regional District in conjunction with WildSafeBC will hold an electric fence workshop. Part of the SCRD's initiative to advance agriculture on the Coast, the workshop will educate attendees on the safe and proper use of an electric fence. The presentation is free and takes place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Frank West Hall, 1224 Chaster Rd., next to Cedar Grove Elementary School in Elphinstone.
According to Kim Drescher, the local coordinator of the provincial program, properly installed and maintained electric fences are the only safe and effective solution to unwanted wildlife visits. To register for the workshop, call 604-885-6800, ext. 6476, or email [email protected].
In the meantime, be aware of hotspots on the Coast for different denizens like the unwelcome cougar making the rounds in Welcome Woods at Halfmoon Bay, the monster-sized bear prowling on Pratt Road in Elphinstone and the prolific deer home to every area on the Sunshine Coast.
We welcome Mother Nature on our doorstep; please do your part to keep her creatures safe.
