Grizzly bears in Pemberton are still being spotted by locals in the area. Paw prints and videos have circulated the community’s Facebook forum in recent weeks, with some now wondering when the bears will hibernate. The Coast to Cascades Grizzly Bear Initiative hosted a Green Drinks conversation with livestock conflict prevention program coordinator, Allen McEwan, at Town Square on Monday, Dec. 11. The group explained the bears may not hibernate if there are still high-quality food sources available.
“The million-dollar question is when are they going to hibernate?” said McEwan. “If we get winter, there’s a fairly good chance they will. Coastal bears don’t necessarily hibernate.” Colleague Erica Van Loon echoed his statement, and stressed securing attractants throughout the year is highly important.
“If the bears have high-quality food sources available, then they are not biologically pushed to hibernate,” she said. “Winter is usually a natural sign of resources dying down. Bears don’t have the energy to keep them going during these cold months. But if there are food sources available, they may not hibernate. That’s why securing attractants is so important throughout the year. It’s their natural cycles that can really be thrown off.”
At the casual meet up, locals had a chance to raise concerns and learn more about their furry neighbours. The bar was full of Pemberton Meadows residents eager for answers to their concerns. Families in Pemberton Meadows previously said they are living in fear of a nearby grizzly and her cubs after children in the area have reportedly come face to face with the bear while playing outside.
McEwan said a large blueberry field was left unfenced in the Pemberton Meadows area during the critical months. This was a “critical error,” and the area is now fenced. He reminded farmers of the electric fencing program provided by Coast to Cascades.
“We are still offering a 50-per-cent cost-sharing program for farmers who want to electric-fence in their crops,” he said. “I believe the success rate is 100 per cent. If the fence is energized and properly built, then that’s the end of your problem.”
A RISKY PROPOSITION
McEwan was asked why bears hanging around people’s backyards cannot be moved to a more suitable area. The fourth-generation Pemberton resident said this might do more harm than good.
“Augmenting a population is certainly on the table and has been done before,” he said. “It’s a really risky proposition. You’re going to have as much failure as success. They’ve done it in the U.S. and places where the bears were completely wiped out. The most successful is to find a sub-adult female who has just been impregnated and move her late in the fall so she can find a den for the winter. She wakes up in the spring and has to stay home with cubs.”
McEwan said an adult male would find his way home in a matter of days, rendering the relocation process useless.
“They have an ability to go home that is really amazing,” he said. “When we talk about moving grizzly bears, it’s a very sensitive topic. First Nations people consider it a very serious emotional trauma to put a bear through. If it was going to be done, it would have to be done properly. The policy right now is that the province will not move a bear out of its home range. Female grizzlies have a very small home range. It’s a really serious thing to do.”
Coast to Cascades is currently calling for the creation of a designated grizzly bear management specialist position in the Sea to Sky corridor.
“We are currently campaigning and lobbying the government to hire a specialist who would have the knowledge and the expertise to do that sort of thing,” said McEwan. “It’s the only way we are going to get any action. This is purely political.”
People in attendance were asked to sign a pre-written letter to provincial environment minister George Heyman. “While Sea to Sky residents are generally (but not unanimously) in favour of grizzly bear recovery, we must point out that coexistence is costly, nerve-wracking and potentially dangerous,” the letter reads. “We should not be expected to shoulder the full burdens of coexistence, which include crop losses, livestock degradations and the potential threat to our family’s safety.”
‘BREAKING ALL THE RULES’
McEwan stressed the behaviour of grizzlies in the Pemberton Meadows area threw a spanner in the works.
“We never expected this to happen,” he said. “All the data that has been collected over the last 20 years indicated that a sow with cubs would never set foot in the agricultural zone. The behaviour of this female who came in 2020 has caught us completely by surprise. It’s totally unexpected.”
Landowners are still being urged to haze the bears as much as possible until more sustainable solutions arrive at the table. Dr. Bruce McLellan is providing some leadership at the moment. McLellan spent more than 40 years researching grizzlies, and even raised his family on the banks of the Flathead River.
“Right now, Dr. Bruce McLellan said that if he was in charge he would be taking direct action to collar the bears that show up on the floodplain, haze them and try and make them feel uncomfortable,” said McEwan. “He recommended that landowners who are in this predicament now try to set boundaries and make the bears know where they are not welcome. This bear that we are dealing with is breaking all the rules, too.”
McEwan said many aspects of the sow’s behaviour break traditional norms. “She has raised two sets of cubs in three years, which is highly unusual. Now, we have a family of five that have all got the same kind of behaviour traits,” he said. “It’s a real sort of management dilemma. I really hope that they bring in an expert in the spring to start dealing with this. It’s not appropriate. It’s not what we suspected, and it’s not sustainable.”
Coast to Cascades hopes it will be asked to work alongside government bodies, as it has the local expertise.
“We are in the background trying to help,” said McEwan. “We hope that we might be asked to work in collaboration with the conservation officers next year. We have the local contacts and the daily reports. They need to be treated with due respect at all times.
“The bears have not shown even the slightest bit of aggression, except towards dogs. She is providing a walking coexistence lesson which will set us up for the next round. There will be more.”
