10 - North Shore News - Sunday, February 27, 2000 Bear country soluti: From page 3 supposed to get a bear heading in a greenbelt direction, The buckshot and rubber bullets will be shot atthe animal's “behind” to reinforce the mes- sage. The lead bullets would be used to kill a bear if it became aggressive and turned on the officer or endangered others during the hazing. Thorn talked about Searles’ theory behind non-lethal bear Management. Bears are normally fearful of bumans. Because of human behaviour, bears get trained not to fear humans. Thorn said if a dog was eating garbage in a yard, residents wouldn't watch it, smile and wave. They would aggressively shoo the animal away giving it a negative mes- sage abour eating residential garbage. “The same applies to the bear population. They must understand they are not wel- come in our backyards and we must get rid of food sources for them,” said Thorn. He said the goal is to make the bears stay in the greenbelt where the animals natural food sources are available. Thorn said a bear that occasionally “peaks” into a backyard and is Act: causing problems should not be removed because a new bear that. replaces him could cause problems. “We live in bear country. We should learn to live with bears,” said Thorn. Eleven people were at the non-lethal black bear manage- ment meeting, including North Vancouver District, (NVD) chief naturalist Kevin Bell, vol- unteer Tony Webb, NVD councillor Janice Harris, NVD Parks Advisory Comuaniittee member David Cook, volun- teer Evelyn Kirkaldy and North Vancouver RCMP Const. David Jewers. Among the other things dis- cussed at the meeting were: R possibly installing ‘bear-proof garbage containers in parks {the garbage containers cost more than $1,000 each); @ putting bear icons on the upcoming NVD garbage col- lection calendar and the slogan “Be ‘bear® aware from May to October,” and including infor- mation about garbage storage and composting during bear season in the information that NVD provides about garbage and recyeling; @ starting a bear aware pro- gram to educate people to be part of a wildlife aware commu- nity — residents should not intentionally or unintentionally feed bears, that means residents should clean barbecues of food remnants, remove ripe fruit from trees and carefully store garbage; B changing the garbage collec- tion bylaw as Whistler did so that it is an offence to store garbage in 2 way that attracts bears and wildlife. (There is provincial law currently in force that involves warnings and fines for attracting — dangerous wildlife to yards. This legisla- tion may be cumbersome and lengthy to enforce. A bylaw that results in tickets would be a simpler, quicker system.); @ perhaps adding a disinfectant chemical around birdfeeders which bears don’t fike and will not harm birds who do not have a strong sense of smell; § adding only ieaves and grass to composters during bear sea- son. Thorn said bears come into North Vancouver — because “they were here before we were.” Bears come into vards for said North Vancouver is not Mammoth Lakes, California, so we cannot expect the same high success rates in non-lethal bear man- agement. Thorn says that i’a bear gets south of ihe Trans-Canada Highway, there is a serious public satety issue and it ‘is like- ly conservation officers or police will kill the bear. “If you wy chasing it up into greenbelt you Set tssues of the bear running into people, bear running into cars, cars swerving to avoid bear and hit- ting other cars,” said Thorn. Thorn said that relocating bears a long distance away doesn’t work. A garbage bear will find its way back. NEWS photo Terry Peters THIS bear was photographed In the Biueridge area 1% years ago. It had been in a backyard. The Mounties have four hazing kits for bears with six more to come. The kits were bought by the Northwest Wildlite Preservation Society, a tax-deductible charity Thorn, who is transferring to Vancouver RCMP head- quarters next month, said that two patrol corporals on each shift in North Vancouver will be trained to use the kits. “We still are going to have to shoot bears. We hate to do it. But I think they will be the exception to the rule as opposed to last year,” said Thorn. Garbage is the main draw for locai bears ’ Anna Marie D’Angelo News Reporter adenge- lo@xsnews.com MOST problems with bears have not been associated with com- posters, according to ‘the GVRD Compost ~Hotline-operator. “> Spring’ Gillard said the Compest. Hotline’ doesn’t pan to discourage compost- ae said most of the ‘prob- em bear calls relate to animals getting into garbage, bird IAVLOAMOTIVE” she “BCAA, ARA,, 1.0.8.0. Approved feeders and meat-encrusted barbecues. Gillard advises residents to throw some lime into a com- poster, which wiil help hill the smell. Bears have a kcen sense of smell. Gillard said a resident {ast year who had a bear in a com- poster.on two occasions did not have problems ‘after using lime in the compost. 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