The Tri-Cities continue to be a hotbed for bears, prompting the BC Conservation Officer Service to crack down on people who leave their garbage unsecured.
And already, six bears have been destroyed this season, four in Port Moody and two in Coquitlam.
"The Tri-Cities are basically tying up a lot of the resources and taking a lot of the resources form Metro Vancouver," said conservation officer Robin Sano.
According to the BC Conservation Officer Service, which is responsible for dealing with wildlife complaints, the Tri-Cities were responsible for about 70% of the 140 calls regarding bears last month, compared to 17% from Maple Ridge, 9% from Burnaby and 4% from the North Shore, which has forest habitat similar to this area.
"Either there are still issues regarding habitual bears or bears getting into garbage. It's generally almost all to do with unsecured garbage," Sano said.
He added: "They are mostly in Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam. You have a lot of habituated bears."
Development alongside wildlife corridors is bringing bears out of the woods and if they smell garbage, they typically investigate, opting for humans' high-calorie trash over natural berries and grass.
As well, sows that fed off garbage in previous years are having more cubs, Sano said, which means an entire bear family, such as a sow with three cubs, is now learning to feed from human trash bins.
"After a couple of years, you could have a large number of bears which are basically brought up in the Tri-Cities. We try and relocate them but capturing family units is very difficult."
In PoCo, where a number of complaints are coming from the Cedar Drive, Hyde Creek and Coquitlam River corridor area, conservation officers will be teaming up with city bylaw officers to deal with unsecured garbage.
Residents could get fines of $150 from the city for unsecured garbage or green waste, or a $230 fine from conservation officers for attracting dangerous wildlife to a residence.
The goal, Sano said, is to get people to acquire a wildlife-resistant cart lock to keep bears out and to stop setting garbage out early on pickup days.
Similar efforts were used in Canadian national parks, he said, and the result is very few complaints about bears.
• More information about Critter Guard locks is available here.
Bear stats from April 1 to June 30
Coquitlam
Coq: Calls - 348, attended - 18, destroyed by COs - 2, destroyed by other - 0, hazed - 1
PoCo: Calls - 111, attended - 11, destroyed by COs - 0, destroyed by other - 1, hazed - 0
PoMo: Calls -118, attended - 4, destroyed by COs - 4, destroyed by other - 0, hazed - 0
— source Ministry of Environment
