CANMORE – The Town of Canmore is developing an action plan to help the community better co-exist with wildlife.
Following the death of yet another black bear in Canmore that had been feasting on calorie-rich fruit trees, the municipality launched a survey Oct. 2 to better understand barriers, gaps, and opportunities in two specific areas – keeping dogs on leash and removing fruit-bearing trees and shrubs.
Town of Canmore officials say the implementation and action plan will include a prioritized list of actions and recommendations, and suggestions on how to create support across agencies to best manage wildlife and human use in Canmore.
They say an independent consultant, Black Fly Environmental, has been hired to help with the work.
“It’s trying to take the most practical and logical steps forward to support human-wildlife coexistence in the community and provide administration with a bit of a road map of how to do that most effectively,” said Caitlin Van Gaal, supervisor of environment and sustainability for the Town of Canmore.
“One of the main concerns that we hear is it’s not only public safety and human safety, but safety for the wildlife, which is a big motivation behind why we're looking at doing this plan as well.”
While council’s 2023-26 strategic plan sets priorities to reduce wildlife encounters, the implementation and action plan also falls out of the regional Bow Valley human-wildlife coexistence task force report in 2018 and looks to further some of those 28 recommendations.
By early 2024, the municipality’s human-wildlife coexistence implementation and action plan will be presented to council.
In the development of this plan, the Town will review recent wildlife and human-wildlife conflict data and literature, work with technical experts, and engage the public to gather perspectives on actions the municipality could take to improve human-wildlife coexistence.
The municipality has already worked on several initiatives to support the task force’s recommendations, including developing a fruit tree removal program, fencing green spaces, and advocating for wildlife mitigation along the Trans-Canada Highway.
While current actions on the recommendations are a great starting point, Town of Canmore officials say there is a need for additional planning to effectively advance human-wildlife coexistence.
Van Gaal said the consultant will review other recommendations coming out of the wildlife coexistence task force related to the areas the municipality has jurisdiction over.
“We're looking at addressing some of the barriers and the reasons that the public choose to have their dogs off-leash and ways that maybe we could create situations or circumstances where they are more inclined to put their dogs on leash,” she said.
“We’re also peripherally looking at trail use and undesignated trail use, but primarily focused on fruit trees and off-leash dogs.”
With both people and wildlife concentrating along the valley bottoms, this leads to human-wildlife occurrences, displacement of wildlife from important habitat, and human-caused wildlife mortality.
Wildlife can be drawn into these developments for a variety of reasons including searching for both unnatural food – garbage, domestic fruit trees, pets and feral rabbits – and natural food like berry bushes – as well as security these developed areas can provide from predators.
Last year, seven bears – six black and one grizzly – were relocated out of the Canmore area, most of which got into so-called forbidden fruit like crabapple trees or mountain ash berries in the community.
One black bear family that feasted on fruit trees around town and garbage from a downtown commercial dumpster was relocated but quickly returned. Not wanting to risk public safety, the mama bear and two of her cubs were euthanized by Fish and Wildlife officers.
In Canmore, it is against the law to let fruit or berries accumulate on trees, bushes, or the ground, and new fruit-bearing trees or bushes cannot be planted. Fines can range between $250 and $10,000.
In addition, the Town of Canmore has a fruit tree removal incentive program, which covers 100 per cent of removal costs to a cap of $500.
Van Gaal said the death of that bear family last year sparked new conversations in the community.
“There was a lot of conversation within the community and within administration on how can we tackle this issue and support better human-wildlife coexistence,” she said.
On Sept. 23 this year, yet another black bear was removed from the community after getting into fruit trees. The original report from Bow Valley WildSmart indicated the area was in Cougar Creek, but provincial wildlife officials said this week that it was on the south side of the valley.
Provincial officials say Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Services was called about a black bear frequenting the Three Sisters Drive and Rundle Plant area in Canmore, where officers assessed and immobilized the bear and determined it was high habituated.
"Community members mentioned that the black bear had been around for a couple of days and had shown no fear toward humans, therefore it presented a risk for the community,” said Laura Vilchis Sanchez, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Service, in an email.
“After assessing the situation, Fish and Wildlife officers made the difficult decision to euthanize the animal.”
After the bear was put down, Bow Valley WildSmart was quick to call on residents to do their part.
“Bow Valley residents need to be aware of and concerned that attractants such as fruit trees pose a safety risk to people and the survival of bears,” said Nick de Ruyter, the group’s program director.
"Coexisting with wildlife in the Bow Valley means removing forbidden fruit. The best long-term solution is to remove the fruit tree and replace it with a non-fruit-bearing alternative.”
Meanwhile, the Town of Canmore survey is open until Oct. 31 and can be found here www.mycanmore.ca/wildlife.
“I encourage residents of the community to fill out the survey,” said Van Gaal.
Meanwhile, on Sept. 13, Fish and Wildlife received a report of a black bear was digging and eating vegetables from a garden in Exshaw. A spokesperson for Alberta Fish and Wildlife said the bear was habituated and was euthanized.
