Skip to content

EDITORIAL: Careful, not complacent, with bears

Don't be complacent about bears in the Tri-Cities. There here, they're hungry and your garbage is as good as fine dining for these omnivorous creatures.

Don't be complacent about bears in the Tri-Cities. There here, they're hungry and your garbage is as good as fine dining for these omnivorous creatures.

While they aren't the cuddly cuties portrayed in toilet paper ads, they aren't man-eating terrors, either.

Although they appear placid with the fixed goal of fattening themselves and their cubs for denning, and will in most instances avoid meeting people, they can be unpredictable when provoked. Garbage-habituated bears are a particular concern because they will hang around places where there is unsecured garbage, and therein lies the problem. It's best to treat these creatures with respect.

There have been only two known bear attacks in the Tri-Cities out of hundreds, even thousands of sightings over the years, and only 12 fatalities involving black bears in B.C. in 110 years.

Still, it's best to be cautions. When bears do attack, it's usually because they were provoked and garbage was the lure.

The best course of action, experts say, is to eliminate bear attractants from your yard. If everybody does this, bears have no reason to hang around.

If they do visit a trail for berries, new green shoots and insects, common sense is the best approach to take. Stay calm and back away, keep your dogs and children close and travel in groups. Carry noise makers, such as loud whistles or air horns, and blow them periodically to warn bears away.

Chances are the bear you will meet is a female with cubs and she has no interest in engaging in a scrap, according to the research. Nevertheless, it's best to take these precautions, even when "Bear in Area" signs haven't been posted.

It's hard to believe that normally forest-dwelling black bears are making their home in the Tri-Cities with all the traffic, concrete, bright lights and city noise. But their intelligence makes them highly adaptable and to live with them safely, we mustn't take them for granted.