As wildlife educators call for Nelsonites to do a better job of managing bear attractants in the city, a bylaw that would restrict when residents can put their garbage out is headed to city council.
Local Bear Aware coordinator Joanne Siderius has asked council to add a dawn-to-dusk clause to its garbage bylaw and make it a fineable offense to put trash on the curb before the day of collection.
The request originally came before council last November, but Siderius says the city’s latest brush with grizzlies shows Nelson still needs to do more to minimize bear conflict.
“It’s very disappointing that we lost two grizzly bears because of what I see as poor management of garbage on the community’s part,” Siderius says.
“I think many people in Nelson like the idea of living in a community where... there are still grizzly bears in the area. But in reality, we are not mature enough to manage our garbage so that we can still have grizzly bears. And until that changes we are going to see headlines that grizzly bears are being shot.”
In addition to the timing issue, Siderius would like to see the bylaw require waste to be placed in containers, not put out in bags. She also wants to see the city consider adopting bear resistant garbage cans at some point.
City staff confirmed a bylaw dealing with some of Siderius’ suggestions will be up for debate June 13, and it’s already found support from at least one member of council.
“We need more rules around this, and we need to educate our community,” says Deb Kozak, who adds she was “really sorry” to hear how the grizzly conflict had played out.
“Although there are bylaws and rules around wildlife we can employ, I think we can toughen them up and be a lot stronger and clearer with residents about what they do with waste and compost and how to handle that.”
However, not everyone is convinced the bylaw will do much to change Nelson’s relationship with wildlife.
“We all have to take responsibility for making sure we put our garbage, etcetera away,” says mayor John Dooley. “But the bottom line is those animals, there’s no restrictions on them. They have no boundaries.”
Though he says the bylaw would be a positive move, Dooley points out it won’t affect residents just outside city limits, who may still draw wildlife into the area. He also says it’s likely some residents will ignore whatever rules the city sets up.
“For any municipality in rural British Columbia to think we’re not going to have wildlife in our community, we’re fooling ourselves,” he adds.
“And the unfortunate thing is at the end of the day some of them are going to get destroyed. Bears especially, because they can do a lot of damage to human life.”