Bear Tracks – Our Motto In Peril
This is one contribution to a monthly column on tourism I wrote for our local newspaper, the Alberni Valley Times, on Vancouver Island. It might interest you.
By now everyone knows the Logo and the tag line for Alberni Valley Tourism, “Bear Tracks & Lumberjacks”. Like it or not, this is what we will be using to attract people to our community for the foreseeable future. So it was with some distress that I read about the three bears that had to be destroyed last Monday in the local papers. And to see the Vancouver Sun’s December 8th headline “City is the ‘worst’ place for black bears”.
If we are not careful, this tag line could end up backfiring on us. I say “we” advisedly, because it is everyone’s responsibility to keep this community from becoming the butt of jokes about our motto. Maggie Paquet has been labouring to create awareness about keeping garbage and other attractants away from bears. It seems that she is meeting with mixed success. So I thought I would do my part and encourage people to look for and buy bear proof garbage containers. Responsibility also rests with local merchants who can make these containers available in their stores.
So I thought I would look in some of the stores. I stopped in at a local hardware store I thought would have garbage cans and asked the sales person if they had bear proof containers. He said “No, I don”t know if any stores have them.”
“Surprising,” I said.
“Ya, especially considering we have all these problems with bears,” was the reply.
I kept looking. After 5 stores, I gave up.
I tried looking on line to see if I could find a local source of bear-proof containers. I found no shortage of products available. There are quite a number of containers suitable for city, regional or provincial parks. But there are also products suitable for the home. Several of the sites are From Alberta or Vancouver. I also found bear-proof enclosures that you can put your garbage containers in. And I found small containers that prevent smells from getting out that back packers can use. The prices for these containers are substantially higher than the conventional ones ranging between $120 and $190. Ouch!
I believe that because of the tag line they have chosen, the Chamber of Commerce and Alberni Tourism also have a role to play in promoting a bear-proof community. And so does the City and the Regional District. The cost of bear-proofing may be significant to some home-owners. Perhaps the city could buy containers and sell them at cost instead of relying on local merchants to supply them. There may be other, more creative ways of bear-proofing through incentives, or heavy-handedly through bylaws.
However we do it, I really think that it is in our own best interests to do more than listen politely to Maggie Paquet. We need to seriously consider bear-proofing our community. If we are to sell “Bear Tracks” we should be a leading example of how to do this and not earn headlines for the number of bears we destroy.
Sandy McRuer
RainbirdExcursions.com