The City of Nelson will front $25,000 to a local group so it can bulk order 100 bear resistant garbage bins and then sell them to residents for $250.
The Human/Bear Conflict Working Group (HBCWG) will then return the money to the city.
The group is made up of representatives from WildSafe BC, the provincial Conservation Officer Service, and several provincial government agencies.
The bear resistant containers will be distributed to all WildSafe coordinators in the Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK). They will then be offered for sale to residents who need them, with half of them allocated to Nelson.
In its written report to city council’s July 17 meeting, the group states that some households don’t have the facilities to safely store garbage either in a garage or solidly built shed.
“A supply of bear resistant containers can fill the gap in the small percentage of homes that don’t have the luxury of safe storage of waste. It has been documented that it only takes one residence in a populated area with a bear attractant issue to cause human/bear conflict.”
The report says that the group researched bear resistant containers and settled on the Toter79B64 64-gallon EVR II Bear Tight Cart. The manufacturer will sell these directly to the HBCWG at its wholesale cost of $250.
This is a considerable cost reduction from the $400 per bin charged in an RDCK pilot project last year which supplied a smaller number of a different brand of bins to residents.
Will the group be able to sell all 100 bins? Dave White of WildSafe BC seems confident they will.
“The few bins we had last year all sold and I could have continued selling further bins, if I had them,” he told the Star. I also continue to receive inquiries for bins.”
The bins are considered to be bear resistant, not entirely bear proof, but White said they have survived extensive grizzly bear tests.
And they will definitely keep out smaller animals.
“The same things that are going to make us more bear smart will also deal with skunks and raccoons,” city manager Kevin Cormack said at the July 17 meeting.
He said the number of bears and skunks in the community depends on the food supply we provide for them.
“The populations will grow to match the supply.”
The report states that the BC Conservation Officer service has reviewed human-bear conflicts in the Nelson area from 2010 to 2016 and found that 46 per cent of them can be attributed to preventable garbage attractant issues.
Last year 47 bears were killed in the West Kootenay, many for garbage-related causes.
Council voted unanimously to participate in the project.
