17 bears killed so far in Revelstoke this season

At least 17 bears have been euthanized this season in Revelstoke and while bear awareness in town has gotten better, conservation officer Dan Bartol said it could be better.

“I never want to have a season like this again,” he said.

Bartol will be in Revelstoke from Wednesday, September 14 for a number of days to check on the status of attractants within the city (fruit trees and garbage) and to follow up with the city on their action on the issue. He receives multiple reports daily of undesirable bear activity, including a bear breaking into a Third Street West home two nights in a row.

The 17 bears were destroyed by conservation officers and police. There have been anecdotal stories of residents taking matters into their own hands and shooting bears, but there are no firm numbers on how many.

The total makes 2016 on track to be the worst year for bear deaths in the past two decades. Only 2003 was worse, when 18 bears were destroyed; however, it seems likely 2016 will surpass that number because many weeks are left until hibernation, and there are many anecdotal stories of human-habituated bears still raiding garbage cans in town.

A record of bears in the Revelstoke area. Photo: Bear Aware

Since nine bears were destroyed in less than three days in mid August, and Revelstoke received international attention, a number of officers from the Okanagan have been deployed to Revelstoke.

They carried out an attractant audit, which found a number of unsecured garbage and unpicked fruit trees.

Officers also issued about 13 violations for attracting dangerous wildlife, on top of the dozen that had already been issued.

“I know the community has really stepped up their due diligence on attractants, but we’re still seeing some areas where the community is slipping,” Revelstoke mayor Mark McKee said at the September 13 city council meeting.

“I’m calling on every resident to be as vigilant as possible.”

“Fines have been handed out but we are more concerned about people becoming compliant than we are about fines.”

Bartol noted that a number of business have taken action, putting locks and chains on their bins. But with the rainy summer, the fruit season has been particularly ripe.

While an argument has circulated on social media that fruit trees are natural for bears, Bartol rejects that notion.

“This type of fruit doesn’t naturally grow in this area,” he said. “What’s more, the location of fruit trees are in people’s yards. When bears are comfortable in people’s yards, that’s a potentially dangerous situation where they are becoming tolerant of human presence.”

A bear (see the black spot near the top of the tree) feasts on plums at a First Street West home after scaring a resident, who was harvesting plums at the time, away from the tree. Photo: Aaron Orlando/Revelstoke Mountaineer

Bartol advises this tends to cause a downward trend where bears start to get into garbage and when food sources are taken away, damaging property to access it within residences.

“Right now, Revelstoke downtown is their comfortable food environment,” Bartol said. “When this disappears they’re not going to suddenly switch to natural food sources.”

If people want to have fruit trees, Bartol said that some people have installed electric fences to keep their fruit but deter bears.

An example of an electric fence in Revelstoke. Photo: Revelstoke Bear Aware

Bartol uses Banff and other town sites within national parks such as Jasper and Waterton as examples of good bear awareness with bear bins and removing fruit trees from the community.

Councillor Trevor English at the city council meeting mentioned his intention to bring to council a potential bylaw to allocate more resources to regulate wildlife attractants.

Read previous articles on this issue in the Revelstoke Mountaineer’s gallery.