Calls for change as record 76 black bears killed in one B.C. city

Newly-released data shows a record 76 black bears were killed in Prince George in 2023, more than doubling previous years, as the north-central B.C. city once again led the province in how many of the animals were killed.

The numbers were collected by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and released through the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals, also known as Fur-Bearers, who file freedom of information requests to create an annual list of “B.C.’s Deadliest Communities for Black Bears.”

Prince George has led the list for six of the last eight years, with the numbers of animals killed usually in the 20s and 30s. The previous record was 45 in 2020, while 36 were killed in 2021 and 32 in 2021.

The 2023 numbers released to the Fur-Bearers only included 10 municipalities, the organization said, unlike previous years when the ministry released full provincial data.

The 76 animals killed in Prince George were the most in a single municipality since the Fur-Bearers started releasing the data in 2016, and followed a year referred to by Prince George RCMP as “bearmaggedon,” as numerous bear sightings led to a plea for people not to use 911 to report non-emergency bear sightings.

At a report to city council earlier in the year, conservation officer Eamon McArthur said his officers, as well as RCMP, fielded thousands of calls about bears in the community in 2023, eclipsing previous years. He said a total of 81 bears were killed in Prince George and the surrounding area.

McArthur placed the blame firmly on attractants in the community, from unsecured garbage cans to unpicked fruit luring bears into urban areas in search of food, calling it a “preventable problem.”

B.C.’s Environment Ministry says bears are only killed after officers determine they are not candidates for relocation or rehabilitation. That includes cases where bears have become habituated to eating garbage in urban environments.

Conservationists express frustration

Lesley Fox, executive director of the Fur-Bearers, also expressed frustration that Prince George was topping its list “year after year after year.”

“These numbers demonstrate that [in Prince George], education and enforcement are not working,” she said. “There are systemic problems that need to be addressed.”

Fox acknowledged that Prince George was dotted by urban forests and surrounded by woods, which meant more bear activity would be present than in other urban areas, but said that also meant there was a need for “more diligence.”

Among the solutions she suggested were adding locking mechanisms to garbage cans, and the city instructing bylaw officers to take a more punitive approach to people who were not managing attractants on their properties.

“They should be fined,” she said. “Education and enforcement work hand in hand.”

The City of Prince George has previously experimented with bear-resistant garbage cans but has since abandoned the efforts, due to the cost involved and their lack of compatibility with the existing collection system.

Local conservation group Northern Bear Aware pushed the city to revisit the program earlier this year, arguing that strategically deploying the cans to key neighbourhoods frequented by bears could help reduce the number of animals killed.

While city council would not commit to the idea, they did announce the formation of Bear Awareness Advisory Committee to explore and present options for reducing human-bear conflicts.

At the committee’s first meeting on July 3, the committee discussed the possibility of creating an incentive program that would fund the removal of fruit trees from private properties.

Fox said while she recognized there are costs associated with funding programs like bear-proof garbage cans and tree removal, she argued they are even higher if meaningful change isn’t put into place.

“The cost is to Prince George’s reputation, the cost is to subsidizing the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, the cost is to small non-profit organizations and rehab centres to pick up the slack, and the cost is to bylaw [officers] to go out and police all these problems,” she said.