What can Revelstoke do to stop the bear slaughter?

After nine bears were euthanized in Revelstoke this week, we sat down with Revelstoke Bear Aware coordination Maggie Spizzirri to find out how Revelstoke can do a better job.

In the audio interview below, we discussed steps the community as a whole still needs to take as well as what individuals can do to improve the situation.

The Revelstoke Bear Aware website has lots of information on steps you can take to improve.

Highlights of the interview include:

-Why we are seeing more bears in Revelstoke this season.

-One of the provincial government’s rationales for relocating the Revelstoke conservation officer to Golden in 2013 was officer safety. Having two conservation officers there would enable them to work in pairs. However, we discovered that the conservation officer service is down to just one conservation officer in Golden now.

(Click play to hear the podcast. Story continues below.)

-What if you have fruit trees that you harvest, but you want to be bear aware? How do you properly manage the trees?

-What about locking bear-proof bins? How did the Johnson Heights trial go, and what about implementing the system across Revelstoke?

-What steps would Bear Aware like to City of Revelstoke to take to become better at managing the situation?

-What steps do we need to take to become a Bear Smart community?

-Does calling and reporting bear sightings to Bear Aware or the conservation officer service lead to more bears being destroyed, as some people argue.

And more.

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