De Romeri said it is important to keep wild animals wild and not doing anything that may attract them to your household or neighbourhood. Photo: Peter Sulzle / WildSafeBC

With fall around the corner, black bears will be seeking to fatten up for the winter on the coast. During this time, WildSafeBC is reminding everyone to create a bear-safe neighbourhood.

WildSafeBC is an organization that offers education on preventing conflicts with wildlife. Gabriela De Romeri is the Communications Specialist for WildSafeBC, she said in the fall, bears will appear more often in communities due to hyperphagia which causes an increase in hunger.

“So it is really important that we're aware of that in the fall time, and that anyone who you know owns a home, has a property, is managing their attractants when it comes to the garbage, that's super important,” De Romeri said.

Kiera Brown is the Nanaimo Coordinator for WildSafeBC. She said they have seen continuing reports of interactions with bears that will only continue as the city continues to develop. In Nananimo she said while areas in the north and south ends of Nanaimo or near the highway get the most reports of bears, anywhere with greenery or forest could attract bears.

“I think one of the things that is important when we talk to people is that it's although we focus on kind of these big animals–and I know that cougars are, for example, a really big thing in Nanaimo–is that they're pretty much seen throughout the city,” Brown said.

De Romeri said there are many reasons why a bear might be attracted to a certain neighbourhood; homeowners may put out their garbage bins the night before pick up, there may also be food in bird feeders, dirty barbeques, or fallen fruit from fruit trees.

“This is about the time that we'd recommend [birdfeeders] just be taken down altogether with bears going into this hyperphagia phase, where they're looking for as many and as much calories as possible,” De Romeri said. “About one kilogram of birdseed is equivalent to 7,000-8,000 calories. So they know that, and they'll take advantage of birdseed. It's a bit of a shock sometimes to think that they go after something that small, but they do.”

De Romeri explained that bears are usually just passing through, getting from one spot to another through open green spaces. But she said because of this it is important to not encourage the animals to veer off their track and linger in urban areas longer than they need to.

“That's when they put themselves in danger, and then also when we see humans start to be a little bit afraid of these creatures when they really should be admired,” De Romeri said. “It's sad when I hear people are afraid of bears, I understand there are risks when we get close to bears, but otherwise, they're very peaceful creatures, and they really don't want any trouble with us either.”

De Romeri said the first step to making sure bears do not veer onto your property is to look at how you store your garbage cans.

“About 60 per cent of the black bear conflicts that we see called in usually involve garbage in those reports. So it is really, really important to make sure that you have somewhere secure and usually indoors to store your garbage,” De Romeri said. “So that can be a shed or your garage, just making sure that it is as inaccessible to wildlife as possible. If you don't have a place to store it indoors, potentially look into a bare resistant container.”

She also recommended not keeping pet food outside, and not having bird feeders out during bear’s hyperphagia phase. She also recommends cleaning barbecues and picking up fallen fruits.

In Nanaimo, a gleaning program runs through the Nanaimo Foodshare Society and the Nanaimo Community Gardens Society where volunteer gleaners pick fruit and vegetables from backyards and gardens that would otherwise be wasted or left for wildlife.

De Romeri said it’s not just about keeping bears out of trash or backyards, but also about other wild animals. She said it comes down to keeping wild animals wild and not doing anything that may attract them to your household or neighbourhood.

“You know, we're like, ‘oh, deer aren't harmful, so let's go ahead and leave some carrots and apples out for them,’” De Romeri said. “Well, cougars eat deer–that's one of their main prey sources– so if we are allowing deer to hang out in the community, it doesn't take long for the larger predators to follow afterwards.”

For Brown’s job, she does a lot of door-to-door work around Nanaimo where she sees people store their garbage bins outside or place their bins out for pick up the night before.

“That's one of the main things that I talk to people about, is trying to get people out of that habit, to make them aware that just because it's kind of common practice right now in Nanaimo, for a lot of people to see their neighbours doing that, they actually need to know that there is wildlife in Nanaimo,” Brown said.

One thing Brown has been doing during her door-to-door work is tagging bins that have been placed out on the curb prior to collection day

“I always make sure to include my email on that, so that if they do have any further questions–I know ignorance is a big part of it–I'm just a source that they can always ask anything towards,” Brown said.

The City of Nanaimo recommends on its garbage and recycling webpage that residents keep their carts secured from wildlife and only place carts out at the curb on the morning of collection day, as close as possible to the 8:00 a.m. collection time.

Brown said that for people who store their garbage outside, it usually comes down to a homeowner not knowing the effects it could cause with bears.

“I honestly think that a lot of people that I'm talking to where we've seen a report of bears eating out of people's garbage, I go to talk to their neighbours, and they are shocked to hear that a bear has been in their neighbourhood,” Brown said. “It's such a foreign concept to them, and I think a lot of people don't think that their neighbourhood applies until there's a bear that they see in the morning, and that can be quite a scare for a lot of people.”

Throughout September, WildSafeBC is running its BC Goes Wild campaign celebrating wildlife diversity across the province. During the month, every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon, Brown will be tabling at the Nanaimo North Vancouver Island Regional Library on Hammond Bay Road. There she will be answering any questions about local wildlife and WildsafeBC.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.