Spencer Van Dyk
In central Canada, leaving garbage out could result in an unwanted fine, but in British Columbia, it could attract unwanted guests, like black bears.
Documents obtained through an access to information request stated there were six bears destroyed in the Williams Lake area of British Columbia between June and October of 2015. However, according to Mike Badry of the province’s Ministry of Environment, and Len Butler of the Conservation Officer Service, six killed bears represents a minute fraction of the wildlife conflict cases in the region.
In the summer of 2015, six bears were destroyed, one grizzly and the rest black, one by a resident of the area, and the rest by conservation officers. There are a few reasons a conservation officer could have to kill a bear: if there is a risk to public safety, if the bear is preying on livestock or entering homes, or if it is ill or injured. In the Williams Lake cases from last summer, the small community experienced a brown bear killing a calf, a grizzly in truck beds, and and a black bear attempting to enter someone’s house, all within five months.
According to Badry, a wildlife conflicts manager, black bears are abundant in the province. His department receives approximately 30,000 calls a year regarding wildlife conflict, 20,000 of which are caused by black bears.
“To remove six bears over the course of a season in that area is not unusual,” he said.
In fact, according to Butler, an inspector in charge of the Thompson-Cariboo region for the Conservation Officer Service, the province euthanizes approximately 500–600 bears a year. The issue is that bears are seldom relocated, because the process further stretches the resources of the Conservation Officer Service, it is distressing to the bear, and it upsets the natural order.
Under the B.C. Wildlife Act, landowners can destroy an animal if it is killing livestock, but they have to report it. However, the Conservation Officer Service must investigate that it was a lawful kill, as was the case in Williams Lake last year when a farmer destroyed a brown bear for killing a calf.
Douglas Neasloss, the chief councilor in his indigenous community, and member of the Spirit Bear Research Foundation, has been operating in his area and studying bears for 16 years. He said that if a conservation officer is called, it usually results in the bear being killed.
“I don’t think they have any other mechanisms,” he said, adding that they are understaffed and underfunded.
Bears have a hierarchical social structure, so if a large bear is removed from its habitat, smaller bears could take over to fill the void. Dominant bears need to manage the rivers, he said.
Butler said there are seven officers to cover a territory that could take six hours to cross.
“The areas are monstrous,” he said. “We cover some incredible distances here, and there aren’t many of us. We can only handle the more serious complaints, and public safety is most important.”
The most significant thing the province can do is to educate the population about managing the things on their property that could attract bears, Butler said. Habits like managing garbage and maintaining fruit trees go a long way in preventing bears from entering communities.
“I know people think we just enjoy killing things, but we don’t,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
Butler said there is concern that this year’s early spring will cause problems down the road. He said if drought conditions occur, it could drive the bears into town in greater numbers in the fall.
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In this document, pages three and six were particularly helpful, and provided the most thorough information in the entire document. Both are from the British Columbia Ministry of Environment. Page three details the calls and complaints about bears received by the Conservation Office Service, and page six details the office’s responses and action taken. They were helpful, because they provided more detail as to the specific cases of destroyed bears in the Williams Lake area, as opposed to simply the statistics. They shed light on how the office responds such calls.
