More black bears were put down in Prince George last year than in any other B.C. community, an advocacy group reports.
Meanwhile, Prince George's advisory committee on bear awareness will meet Thursday, July 25 to discuss the next steps in its approach to dealing with black bears in the city.
The Fur-Bearers, a non-partisan registered charity, has published numbers from the B.C. Conservation Officer Service (BC COS) that show the number of black bears euthanized in 2023. The group, founded in 1953, aims to use the data to help communities make changes to reduce negative encounters and the deaths of black bears.
However, the group points out, the available data is incomplete and may not paint the full picture, which hinders their efforts.
The Fur-Bearers used freedom of information requests to collect the data, noting that the conservation officers' service would not release the locations of more than 50 per cent of bears killed in 2023.
Based on the information the group received, there were 603 bears put down last year in B.C. Prince George tops the list, with 76 bears killed within city limits.
- Prince George: 76
- Kamloops: 31
- Mackenzie: 28
- Smithers: 24
- Quesnel: 22
- Burns Lake: 17
- Vanderhoof: 17
- Squamish: 11
- Fort St. James: 11
- Fraser Lake: 10
The Fur-Bearers point out that of the 603 black bears killed by the agency in 2023, the data from the 10 communities offered details on only 247 black bear deaths, leaving questions about where the remaining 356 black bears were killed last year.
“Following a deadly year for black bears in British Columbia, we expected to see the familiar names of communities where issues remain unresolved,” said Lesley Fox, executive director of the Fur-Bearers, in a press release. “Unfortunately, this year the BC COS only provided 10 communities – and did not tell us where they killed 356 of the alarming 603 black bears killed.”
This prompted a call by the Fur-Bearers for more transparency.
“The location of where over 50 per cent of the black bears killed remains unknown by the public, and that’s completely unacceptable both for conservation and government accountability,” said Fox. “We’re calling on the BC COS to begin publishing bear kill statistics monthly, by location, for the public to see. There is no way for communities to do better when they don’t know there’s a problem.”
Of the 10 communities listed, only Kamloops and Squamish have provincial Bear Smart certification, meaning they've met criteria established by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, the British Columbia Conservation Foundation and the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.
Being designated Bear Smart means the municipality has adopted preventative conservation measures that can help reduce the number of bears that have to be destroyed each year.
Prince George is looking to earn Bear Smart status, and will address that process on July 25. The meeting, which will begin at 9 a.m. in the second-floor conference room at city hall, will include a submission from staff on the draft Bear Smart program application and a report on inter-agency feedback on the application.
In addition, the Northern Bear Awareness Society will make a submission on the program, the bear hazard assessment for Prince George, human-bear conflict prevention management, as well as a report on bear occurrences and mortalities for the city.
In many cases, the Fur-Bearers note, hungry bears were attracted to residential areas because of unsecured curbside garbage, fruit left uncollected on trees, bird feeders and other factors. Urban expansion and resource development has also led to bears exploring areas they would have previously avoided.
A full list of possible attractants around B.C. homes can be found at TheFurBearers.com/attractants.
