Port Moody will spend more than $20,000 for a consultant to help the city develop a bear management strategy.
Such a strategy is a key component to Port Moody becoming officially recognized as a Bear Smart community by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, said Kurt Frei, the environmental technician for the city’s environment and parks department.
Even though Coquitlam is designated as a Bear Safe community, there are still bear encounters in the city like this one on Plateau Drive. Port Moody will spend more than $20,000 to hire a consultant to devise a bear management plan for the city with the goal of getting recognized as Bear Safe as well. Photograph By ENRIQUE WAIZEL PHOTO
Currently, only eight communities, including Coquitlam, have achieved Bear Smart designation.
Frei said the goal of the Bear Smart program is to reduce the risk to public safety from encounters with bears while also cutting the number of bears that are put down each year as a result of those encounters.
According to statistics provided by the BC Conservation Officer Service, there have been 840 bear encounters in Port Moody since 2013 and eight adult bears as well as five cubs were killed because they had become conditioned to human food.
Frei said Port Moody’s unique geography — surrounded by forested slopes and natural areas — means every neighbourhood city is susceptible to visits from bruins, with problem encounters usually peaking in August.
“As bears are brought closer to people, problems increase,” he said, adding PoMo becoming Bear Smart could decrease problem encounters with bears by 30%.
To achieve Bear Smart designation, Frei said, the city must fulfill a number of criteria, including:
- completion of a bear hazard assessment;
- preparation of human-bear conflict management plan;
- implementation of an effective education program;
- development of bear-proof solid waste management system;
- and implementation and enforcement of Bear Smart bylaws to ensure bears can’t access human food.
Frei said a bear management plan would be “like an audit, with specific actions to take,” that needs to be conducted by an expert in bear biology.
Coun. Diana Dilworth said hiring a consultant to help the city devise a bear management program is “a no-brainer,” adding, “We’ve looked at a number of ways of addressing bear conflicts, we need to do something more.”
Frei said while achieving Bear Smart status normally takes up to five or six years, Port Moody might be able to reduce that time frame by half by consulting with other communities that are already designated Bear Smart.
