WildSafe Kimberley Cranbrook Community Coordinator Danika Lisk presented her tenth year-end report to Council at their regular meeting on Monday, Oct. 28.
Lisk told Council that WildSafe had a very successful year in 2024, and highlighted some of the organization’s achievements.
She reached 1,874 students in educational presentations this year, not including the Future is Now presentation at McKim Middle school, which she called an “incredible event” that reached to 1,000 more students. The event featured Science journalist and CBC Radio host Bob McDonald.
On top of that, she reached 3,161 community members, including through bear spray demos and Camp Odyssey, but excluding the school presentations.
WildSafe's Garbage Bin Tagging Program tagged 71 bins that were put out too early, with a very small number of repeat offenders. Residents who get their garbage or compost bins tagged twice for putting them out to early get reported to the city's bylaw officer.
In terms of wildlife reports, deer remain at the top, followed by bear, then elk, raccoon and finally cougars.
Lisk highlighted findings from the WildSafeBC Bear Smart Social Science Survey that was released in June 2023 and ran until August 2024.
"We focused a lot on the Bear Smart Community Program this year," Lisk said. "From behind the scenes we had pitched a social science survey in June of 2023 that reached community members and tourists to get a feel of what they feel the community is like in terms of bears."
In total, 233 residents participated in the survey. Of those, 85 said they like having bears in the area, but worry about conflicts they may cause, 89 said they like having bears, but worry about human safety, 51 said they like having bears in the area, seven said they don’t like having bears in the area.
"It’s a really great piece, it’s just to get an idea of what Kimberley as a whole feels about this bear working group, bear smart status and bears in general and their safety," she explained.
She said this data is the last piece of the puzzle of the bear hazard assessment, that will then go back for review, with an audit to follow in the spring and then Kimberley can be certified for Bear Smart Status.
The Bear Smart Community Program, designed and run by The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy in partnership with the British Columbia Conservation Foundation and the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, is a voluntary, preventative conservation measure that encourages communities, businesses and individuals to work together.
The goal is to address the root causes of human/bear conflicts, thereby reducing the risks to human safety and private property, as well as the number of bears that have to be destroyed each year.
"Basically, most people enjoy wildlife in the community, they’re just worrying about their safety and the conflicts," Lisk explained. "The most common safety concern is their pets, their kids and the elderly, not so much focused on themselves, but their family and community, which is cool."
Most of the conflict with bears stems from garbage and gardens, followed by birdseed and fruit, with birdseed becoming a more prevalent one over the years. One of the challenges WildSafe faced this year, Lisk said, was that many people were not willing to take down their bird feeders.
"Which is fine, but it is a major attraction, not just for bears but for raccoons, whose population is soaring in Kimberley," she said.
"Lots of people weren’t aware that birdseed was an attractant to bears. They’ll actually take measures, now that they’re mindful of that, to keep their bird feeders down and their attractants as well."
Lisk said the Conservation Officers Service (CO) destroyed two black bears in Kimberley, which is lower than usual. Conflicts themselves are also down.
"They gave a big shoutout to City of Kimberley's Solid Waste Management Department and bylaw officer, and what Wildsafe has been doing to try and communicate on the ground, it's actually clicking," Lisk said.
She added one of the bears that was destroyed this fall was because it had climbed up three stories at a residence at the ski hill to get to a bird feeder, displaying increased habituation.
Lisk said more people are carrying bear spray lately, due in part to word getting out from the bear spray demo she hosts.
Councillor Sandra Roberts commended Lisk and the work of WildSafe, saying she recalls a time around 12 years ago, when Kimberley had an influx of new residents who were afraid of bears and wanted them out of the community, resulting in 11 bears being taken out in a season.
"I'm pleased to see on the survey that people are stating that they like having the bears around," Roberts said. "That’s good because they’re not after us, they’re just trying to get by and we just need to find a way for that to happen."
"The City of Kimberley should be proud," Lisk replied, "because from that survey it shows that not only does the community feel safe, it makes Kimberley a more attractive place to visit because there is wildlife here but you care about it and you manage your attractants in a certain way that you can live in coexistence with them."
