Bear encounters at Whistler’s Riverside Resort were a hot topic at a recent meeting of the Whistler Bear Advisory Committee (WBAC), leading to a short discussion at the Nov. 2 council meeting.
Bear encounters at the campground were the “primary issue in Whistler” in mid-August, said Conservation Officer Service (COS) Sgt. Simon Gravel, according to minutes from the Aug. 11 WBAC meeting.
RMOW staff attended the site with COS “when things were happening in the late summer, and looking at a variety of options down there,” said environmental stewardship manager Heather Beresford at the Nov. 2 council meeting.
“There’s been a lot of information sharing and education done on the sites, but we are also considering some modifications to the vegetation down there and just the general tent site layout,” Beresford said, adding that the site presents challenges for the COS.
”It’s just solid bushes, and so the bears can move through there without being seen—they just kind of pop out—so we’re working on that over the winter,” she said.
The campground’s management has been “really supportive,” Beresford added.
“They want to make this work … They’ve been very progressive on a lot of things, they’re very cooperative, but some of the site layout is just really problematic,” she said.
“So I think that by the time next season rolls around, we’re going to have pieces in place and a plan to try to reduce the number of issues that are in there.”
As of Oct. 15, the COS had received 232 bear-related complaints in Whistler in 2021. One bear was killed in Emerald by the COS in July due to its extensive conflict history and public safety concerns, and no bears were relocated.
