Bear Safe Neighborhoods

Vancouver's three North Shore municipalities (the District of West Vancouver, the District of North Vancouver and the City of North Vancouver) grapple with black bear and resident interactions and have actively promoted bear awareness. See, for example http://westvancouver.ca/home-building-property/pets-wildlife-environment/bears and http://northshorebears.com/proofing

Christopher Radziminski
Policy Analyst
City of Vancouver / Engineering Services
Canada

Another aspect you can consider for a bear safe neighborhood would be long term Scout camps and BSA high adventure bases. Most Scout camps have, as an aspect of their Leave no Trace program, a specific set of guidelines for handling of food and trash in camp. Philmont Scout ranch in New Mexico has an extensive training on dealing with bears.

http://www.philmontscoutranch.org/TrekPreparation/Shakedown/BearBags.aspx

While summer camp and short term camping and backpacking have little to do with neighborhoods, the BSA is a great resource for effective training programs regarding the matter.

Brian Loomis

Hi Stacy: I presume that even if a household was not intent on purchasing a bear proof garbage can that you would nonetheless want them to put their garbage can out in the morning to reduce the length of time that the garbage was accessible to bears. The challenge, however, is that even if a household put their container out in morning with this in mind other members of the community would not be able to intuit that this was their intent.

As a consequence, I think you should consider using commitment stickers that can be placed on both bear proof and non-bear proof garbage containers that make clear that the container is purposely being put out in the morning. By having the stickers applied to the containers you may be able to quickly establish community norms that this is appropriate behavior. Further, you may see increased interest in purchasing bear-proof containers as the profile of this activity is raised in the community.

Finally. if you pursue using commitment stickers I would canvas neighbourhoods door-to-door. At the door step explain the purpose of using bear proof containers as well as the importance of putting the container out to the curbside in the morning regardless of whether it is bear proof. If the household makes a commitment to put the container out in the morning, ask if you can affix a commitment sticker to their container on the next collection date. I am suggesting that you affix the stickers yourself as in my experience that doubles to triples the number of stickers that actually get attached. At the doorstep simply show the sticker to the resident and explain that it will be affixed on the next collection date (e.g., the sticker in your hand is just to show to residents). When you go to attach the stickers ensure that they are applied to the side of the container that will be viewed most easily by someone travelling down that side of the street. The text on the stickers needs to be large enough to be visible to someone driving by to ensure that the intent is clear. Further, you should explore the principle reason why someone would be motivated to place the container out in the morning. I am presuming that it is to protect humans, and particularly children, rather than animal protection. If that is the case, profile that motivation in your sticker. Lastly, there is a strong referent effect for norms. Consequently, focus on getting as many stickers applied on a street rather than across the whole community as householders are most likely to concerned about what their neighbours on the street believe is important. The easiest way to do this is to have volunteers or staff canvas streets in a neighbourhood before moving on to another neighbourhood. Hope this helps and good luck.

Best, Doug

Doug McKenzie-Mohr
Environmental Psychologist
McKenzie-Mohr & Associates Inc.
http://www.cbsm.com

I would reccomend you get in touch with Wild Smart based out of Canmore Alberta. They have done a lot of work changing behaviours to prevent incidents with bears. They have done door to door campaigns and should have a good understanding of the motivations to focus on.

http://www.wildsmart.ca/

Myles Curry
Canada

Cycling in the mountains is a much more stress-free activity if one can be assured all the bears have their heads in garbage cans in town. However in the spirit of good environmental stewardship our graphic designer came up with a c-bsm inspired poster for a campaign.
http://www.morepeoplecycling.ca/bear_about.php

Gary Beaton
Tour de Nuit Society
Canada
www.morepeoplecycling.ca

Hi Stacey,

Try www.bearsmart.com in Whistler. They have a tremendous amount of information on their website, and Sylvia Dolson, the Executive Director, attended one of my CBSM workshops so she understands the CBSM approach to the issue.

Ken Donnelly
President
Beyond Attitude Consulting Inc.
Canada
www.beyondattitude.com

You could also try looking at Squamish, BC. They have curbside collection with locking (mostly) bear proof bins. Many communities will also have bylaws that restrict how early the bins can be set out on the day so that there is less exposure time to bears.

Sue Maxwell
Ecoinspire
Canada