ear

Conservation
officers have
few choices

Marcie Good
Contributing Writer

BROACHING the
subject of bears on the
North Shore can be as
divisive as talking
about religion or poli-
tics.

Betty Carrington _ has
found that people have strong
ideas about what should be
done when bears rummage
through their garbage cans or
wander through neighbour-

- hoods. But ever since the dav

. in August when Carrington
returned home to find police
officers on her front lawn with
guns raised at a black bear, she
has been determined to pro-
mote better solutions.

Along with several neigh-
bours, Carrington started

Blueridge Initiative, a group
dedicated to gathering infor-
mation and raising public
awareness about bears.

: The neighbourhood real-

f.

ly has to clean up its act,” she said. “We do not want the RCMP

or conservation officers killing bears in our yards.”

~. So far this year, conservation officers in the region from
Langley to Horseshoe Bay have shot 23 bears and relocated
four. By setting up education tables at neighbourhood events
and talking to people about how to avoid attracting bears,
Carrington hopes to cut down on the number of bears visiting

residential areas, and in turn, the number killed.

* Since her experience with the near-shooting of the bear, she
says she has already jearned a lot about the animals. She and her
family have cut down a plum tree and gotten rid of a compost

_ site.

Anna Marie D’Aegelo =
News Reporter dangelo@nsnews.com : a
FOUR representatives of :
North Shore social services

agencies held a press conference

oan Monday to voice concerns

about a 1.5% cut to their bud-

gets this year.

“We have lived without increases in
our contracts for approximately eight
years. There is no fat in these contracts,”
said Don Rutherford, executive director

“ of North Shore Neighbourhood House.
<The panelists included Rutherford
and:

Mi Cathy Crouse, executive director of
‘North Shore Disability Resource
Centre;

“ Arlene Gladstone, executive director

of Family Service of the North Shore;

#7 Joy Hayden, director of children and

family services, North Shore Association

for the Mentally Handicapped;

Anite Dadson, a parent of an adult daughter who is

severely physically disabled.

A spokesman for the provincial Children and

Catherine Barr
Contributing Writer

NORTH Vancouver City is banning
skateboarders fora using the new 14th
street civic plaza as a play area.
.. An amendment bylaw, which reached third read-
: ing on Monday, will give power to city officers to
enforce the “no skating” rule by fining offenders as
much as $50. .

< The new civic plaza, which was rebuilt last year at
“a_cost of approximately $800,000, has suffered
‘damage. .

.. Walking through the centre of the plaza, it is easy
‘to see where skaters have ground their way along

garbage outside.

Ir’s your job to look after the bears."”

mal,

a 7

NEWS photo Mike Waketiald

NGCATH Shore Neighbourhood House executive director Don
Rutherford said there is no fat in community services budgets.

Families Ministry did not return calls to press time.
Dollar values for the amount of budget moncy allocat-
ed by the ministry to the North Shore was not avail-

Rick Hahn, a senior conservation officer with the environ-
ment niinistry, spoke to North Vancouver District council on
Monday night about the high number of bears being shot. ‘Too
many people, he said, continue to put up birdfeeders and leave

“It's really not the bear’s fault, it’s a people problem,” said
Hahn. “People say to us, ‘Why can’t I leave my bird feeder out?

After one weck, a bear gets used to those food sources and is
likely to become a nuisance. After receiving several complaints
about the same bear, conservation officers usually shoct the ani-

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

PAT Stothers (left to right), Elissa Nielsen, Thomas Woods, Pat Woods, Bridget Woods and Betty Carrington
with Bear the mascot want to draw attention to bear awareness in North Shore neighbourhoods.

away.”

receptive to its cfforts.

animais.”

able. An estimate of the numbers of
people receiving services through that
udget were not made available either.
Panelists stated that the ministry had
micney for union contract increases,
but slashed money for non-union con-
tracts by 1.5% in May. The cutbacks
were retroactive to April.
Panelists stated that services for chil-
dren, youth, families and people with
disabilities were underfunded before
the cutbacks. An example used was a
woman with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
who was cut frora services because she
was 19. She tried unsuccessfilly to get
a job and apartment. Her foster par-
ents took her back without financial
support from the province.
The ministry funding cut also affects
Capilano Community — Services,
Canadian Mental Health Association
(North and West Vancouver), North
Shore Community Services, Seaview
Alcohol and Drug, North Shore
Multicultural Society, North Shore
Menopause information Centre,
North Shore Child Care Resources Centre, Family
Services of the North Shore, B.C. Centre for Ability
and B.C, Brain Injury Association.

own on skateboarders

the concrete benches and worn down the edges.
Numerous dirty black scuff and scrape marks can be
scen on the surfaces of the central plaza as well as on
the steps and stairways leading to city hall itself.

According to city staff, there have been several
complaints regarding the skateboarders in the plaza
area, Human safety is also a factor.

In addition to skateboarding, “any sport, amusc-
ment, exercise or occupation on a street, public
open space, or plaza, which is likely to spoil or
deface city property,” is also subject to warnings and
ines.

The new rules are not just limited to the civic
plaza are2z. According to the bylaw, all “public open
spaces, plazas and other city properties” can qualify
for enforcement.

Signage will also be installed at ail pertinent loca-
tions to warn violators that the arca is off limits to
these kinds of activities.

Edging, which is designed to further deter the
skaters from using the civic plaza, will also be
installed along the concrete benches in the area.

Coun. Stella Jo Dean said she was more than
pleased to have the new bylaw in place, but said she
felt that $50 is not enough to compensate the city
for all the damage. . :

She is in favour of raising the fines.

However city staff have concluded that $50 is
the maximum allowable fine for a bylaw of this type.
Officers will have the power to confiscate skate-
boards. But as one official noted, kids on skate-
boards are awfully hard to catch.

Tranquilizing and relocating a
bear is a difficult process, he
explained. Moving it to
another area is often traumat-
i¢ because other bears chase
the newcomer out of their ter-
titory, A problem bear that
returns to backyards is likely
to do the same thing in
another area, and is therefore
not a “candidate for reloca-
tion.”

Hahn conceded thar his office
is also, as Coun. Ernie Crist
pur it, “woefully underfunded
and understaffed.” With only
avo conservation officers for
the region, more bears will be
shot because not enough staff
is available for che consider-
able effort of tranquilizing an
animal and driving it several
hours to a new place.
Officers must also consider
whether tranquilizing the bear
can be done without any
threat to public | safety.
Because the immobilizing
drug takes on average
between five and 15 minutes
to work, officers must get the
bear into a confined space
before shooting the dart.
Often that means chasing the
bear up a tree, a task that
poses a risk to the officers.
But efforts to educate people

and try to avoid more shootings have met with limited success.
“We've attempted to send out information brochures, and it
didn’t scem to help,” he said. “Peopte look at it and fire it

Carrington concedes that is truc, and she and other members
of her group have found that a one-on-one approach is more
effective than sending out information. The Blueridge Initiative
already counts 50 members, and she said people have been very

“We need to find mare bear-friendly solutions,” she said.
“We, like many people, live on the North Shore because we love

WV mayor
joins lane —
controversy

From page \

because of the causeway’s
narrow lanes,

Boname said that the
manager of the West
Vancouver transportation sys-
tem was a member of the
committee for the Lions Gate
Bridge Project and had
repeatedly asked for wider
causeway lanes.

“It’s something that has to
be addressed really: soon,”
Boname said. “I know the.
(Vancouver) Parks Board
won't agree, but there are
saner heads. People will see it
doesn’t make sense (not to
widen the causeway lanes).”

Boname pointed out that
vegetation had already been
removed from the side of the
road in Stanley Park. Why
not, she asked, just widen the
lanes while the opportunity
still exists? :

“I see no reason why they

can’t widen the lanes,”
Boname said. _
' She said the province
should put safety first and
overrule the Vancouver Park
Board’s_ decision against
widening the © causeway’s
lanes.

Geoff Freer, project direc--
tor for the Lions Gate
upgrade, told the News that .
the BCTFA would love to be
able to widen the catiseway.
lanes —- “it would be nice to
fix it from a safety perspec-
tive,” he said.

But Freer added that the
matter was out of the associa-
tion’s hands.