Momma bear about to be shot

If you'd like to know why, come to my house!!!!!!!

2491 Thompson 362-7737

I had two bears inside my house. They're dead. They threatened me, and because they threatened me they threatened my kids. 

This entire community needs to own this. 

Miche

If you'd like to know why, come to my house!!!!!!!

2491 Thompson 362-7737

I had two bears inside my house. They're dead. They threatened me, and because they threatened me they threatened my kids. 

This entire community needs to own this. 

Miche

 What a terrifying situation for you and your kids. More than glad no harm came to you and your little ones (assuming all are ok).

I was really saddened to hear a bear, let alone a mamma bear, had to be killed.  Did they even make it a month out of hibernation? I'm wondering if it was the momma with 3 cubs. Last night they were rummaging through the garbage bin next to the miner's hall, the mom was easily scared off but not the cubs.  

Very sad indeed, good thing nobody was hurt. But why do you say that "the entire community needs to own this?" Does that mean you are putting the blame on everyone else?

Glad to hear you and your family are ok alpine.edibles.

It breaks my heart though about the killing. It was a long crazy drawn out Winter that went on and on. I'm sure the bears, all bears, all still totally starving, causing them to do things they normally might not do. I can't blame the bears, we all do what we need to do. Its a sad day. :(

I'm glad you're all safe. Hopefully we won't hear any more stories like that. 

I am a little new to the Rossland bear issues. Can I ask how the bears got into your house, so I  do not do the same thing

Maybe a bear aware night is in order.  Unless you are hiding in a garbage can or look like a huckleberry you are fine leave them alone.  I live with one in my back yard and was so used to me  he was no threat.  Go. Ack to the city you came from or get over your fears.  They were here long before is

Maybe a bear aware night is in order.  Unless you are hiding in a garbage can or look like a huckleberry you are fine leave them alone.  I live with one in my back yard and was so used to me  he was no threat.  Go. Ack to the city you came from or get over your fears.  They were here long before is

wow Miche glad everybody's ok. Don't expect any significant change though. Sad that a mom had to loose her cubs then her own life. All because people can't take a few precautions 

More and more people venturing into the woods, the bears land, not ours, more and more attractants, poor bears don't have much of a chance. So sad. Humans constantly make things worse. :(

I am not sure how "the entire community needs to own this". I lock up my garbage and have nothing in my yard to attract bears, and I am sure others do the same. I am quite offended by your statement. 

I am not sure how "the entire community needs to own this". I lock up my garbage and have nothing in my yard to attract bears, and I am sure others do the same. I am quite offended by your statement. 

Hi everyone, thanks for all your comments, Miche here again. To answer some of the above:

1) @auntgabe: The mother bear was not shot. She was watched to see what she would do, when she finally emerged. She was not around through most of the situation, which actually made it a bit more scary.

2) @Christy: No, I am not putting the blame "on everyone else". What I am saying is that the entire community "needs to own" the FACT that bear attractants are not manage responsibly in this town, and that bears are REGULARLY, every single year, habitualized to humans.

3) @D.W.: Thank you. I appreciate your concern. We are physically ok. We are not mentally ok. I hope that noone reads my post and thinks that we think what happened is ok. We are traumatized. My best friend took one look at me at the end of the day and knew just how not-ok I was.

4)@N87: When my partner left for work in haste this morning, he inadvertandly and very accidently, and obviously extemely regrettably did not shut the basement door absolutely closed. In my haste to get three kids out the door for morning activities, I didn't check to make sure. We ALWAYS keep our garbage inside our house, and well, the bear cub somehow managed to find our door and nudge it open.

5) @Mark: I was home alone with 3 kids, and had two bears INSIDE MY HOUSE, and they weren't leaving. What was I supposed to do?!!!!!!!!! Come to my door, 2491 Thompson Ave, and PLEASE EDUCATE ME.

6) @BcMtnDog: Was it you that came to my property today, entered my property, skulked in my backyard, circled my house twice, complained that no window was broken (cause we already boarded it up) and left again, without knocking on our door to speak to us face to face?

7) @D.W. again: Yes, you're right. This is the exact reason I am sharing this story.

8) @Kbye: Yes you're right, not every person in our community is irresponsible with their bear attractants. Neither are we. But we happen to be the people that suffered through this traumatizing ordeal today. If our community as a whole placed emphasis on being a bear-safe, a bear-responsible community, then maybe this wouldn't have happened. Maybe it won't happen again. Maybe, if as a community as a whole, we step up proactively to make change together, this won't happen even worse next time. My kids were in danger today. My family was in danger today. And it wasn't our fault. As a community we are habitualizing bears. THIS IS NOT OK. So yes, our community needs to "own" this responsibility. Whether you choose to be with that, or against that, that is your choice.

Thank you everyone for your comments, and questions. We have nothing to hide.

We are open to answering everyones questions. We are open to conversation. We are open to PROACTIVE CHANGE TO ENSURE THIS NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN.

We are NOT OPEN to people trespassing on our property, without our permission, to look for the goddamn broken window that these bears broke to get into our house. Have some respect. We are distraught. Traumatized. Upset. I'm still freakin' crying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please be respectful.

It must have been terrifying, I am so glad your family is ok!  :)

D, I was so scared. I became the "mamma bear trying to protect her cubs".

Like I said Miche, I'm very happy you're all ok. Damn scary. After hearing what led to it all, I agree with the decision to call it in.

That being said, I've never stepped foot in your yard. Making baseless accusations will lead to you not being taken seriously. For future reference 

@BcMtnDog. Thank you, you're right, damn scary.

I wasn't making accusations. I asked a question. You obviously live close to this area, and somebody who lives close to this area took it upon themselves to come onto our property and investigate. I was just asking if it was you, since you vocalized your disappointment on bhubble.

I'm obviously insanely upset, and meant no harm in my questions. Thank you for clarifying :)

I'm going to make some unpopular comments here. 

Personally I don't think a community can realistically succeed in getting rid of ALL bear attractants and less so if people want to keep chickens, compost bins/piles and fruit trees. I would love to have a fruit tree! Why not plant a tree that can provide food as well as shade and flowers? Why not have chickens to provide eggs and meat? It's an excellent move toward food independence. And why in the world throw your plant matter into the landfill? Composting makes so much more sense. I know that there are ways to reduce the attraction of these things but I don't think anything will reduce the attraction to nil. In spite of that, I totally support composting, gardening, fruit trees and chickens. 

No matter how responsible any of us are (and granted, there is room for improvement), I think bears will continue to come into town. For heaven's sake, the town smells like food. People are cooking in their houses and on their patios. With their sense of smell, of course they're going to come exploring. 

Maybe one of the reasons we didn't have as many issues with bears when I was growing up is that they were all out at the city dump we had in those days. I'm not suggesting that as a solution, but I know there are WAY more bear encounters in town than there were a few decades ago. Up until the last three of four years, I had NEVER heard of bears entering house; now I hear about it fairly often. There is a young bear (I haven't seen him so don't know if it's a yearling or younger) that has been around on its own lately and trying to get into houses. The sad fact of it is, this bear could likely end up shot as well. As noted, what are you going to do when you have a bear inside the house? They (like all other animals, humans included) are creatures of habit. If they find food ONE time, they'll come back again and again. 

The existence of humans alongside wild animals will end up in the killing of said animals, obviously even more so if those animals can threaten human life. I'm not happy about that any more than anyone else. But I'm also not willing to move - is anyone? The people who are trying to do the right thing ecologically (as far as food production goes) will probably have more bears around their property. The bear may not be successful if all the right measures are taken ALL the time (electric fences and other deterrents) but when they can see and smell food, I'm pretty sure they will continue to try. Wouldn't you, if you were hungry?

I'm not suggesting we stop trying to improve. Let's, by all means, continue to search for more and better solutions (one being a drop-off point for garbage as opposed to street collection - but wouldn't that result in bears hanging around the drop-off point?). But anger and accusation is not productive toward a goal of reducing bear kills. 

I may have missed a few key points in this thread, but i think this is a summary of the details.

1. Your husband inadvertently left the basement door open
2. A couple of curious bears smelt food / garbage and decided to investigate
3. You called the cops
4. The cops called the CO
5. The CO shot the bears.

'This entire community needs to own this'. No we don't, you need to lock your door to stop curious bears.

Your actions and your actions alone, have caused the death of two innocent bears.

You're not more important than a bear. Bears are cool.

Mondegreen, your message is very well said. I very much appreciate your words, thoughts. Thank you so much. If I've come across as angry, accusatory, that has not been my intention. We're all really emotional over here, and we never wanted to see bloodshed on or near our property. Ever. Or anywhere. The only message we're trying to share is that as a community, as a whole, lets be better. Thats it.

We're not pointing fingers at you, or him, or her, or them, or that person. Let's just work together, to make sure this never happens again.

With love

Miche, Dan, Calla, Mica, Cedar

Mondegreen, the reason we didn't have the same level of bear problems in the past is because people frequently shot what they saw as a problem bear. I am not saying it is/was the right thing to do - I'm just saying it happened. Now it seems politically incorrect to even suggest a vast over-population of bears in town is in any way an issue.

Miche, you've had a bad scare and you feel guilty. sounds to me like you did the right thing to protect your family. Your husband messed up. Happens. As I recall you have/had chickens which are a major attractant. Agriculture and wilderness seldom work well together. You may want to reconsider that. Don't now lash out at "the community" or others for your decisions or errors.

Our collective obligation is to protect 'the species'. If an individual animal ends up being killed because it presents a hazard, so be it.

These bears did not go near our chickens. Not our compost. Not our bbq. Not our vegetables. Not anything. None of it. They had no interest. None of the bears this spring have had any interest. We use electric fence through our yard. These bears looked at me like they were dogs. Cocked their heads like I was calling to them. My neighbour had a bear in her basement just the other night! These bears smashed a cars windows last night! Another person in town called the CO yesterday too!

I am not lashing out. This isn't a lash out. This is an upset plea to the community as a whole to recognize a problem as a whole, and come together as a whole to make productive change. <3

 Mossy,  yes the entire town does need to own this, how did the young bear even know that garbage can be food in the first place?Last week on Leroi there was a bear who kicked a can of garbage over and was eating it, now that bear knows garbage is food, and some how this is only the Hayden's fault?  Shame on you

Miche - I feel for you. I cannot imagine how traumatic this was for you and your family. I can tell you are a kind and sincere person. I wish you all the best.

So, what have we established is that while we live in a mountain town we share our setting with wildlife.  Wildlife that unfortunately has become accustomed to us and our refuse, ie. gar bears.  And nothing makes me more sad that seeing a garbage bear, because garbage is like crack for bears and sadly a garbage bear really only has one fate, and that's getting shot for being in town frequently.  Ive lived here for 27 years and have seen fluctuations in bear populations and prescence in town.  My honest opinion is that the biggest affect on bears coming into town is being pushed out of the Trail Creek area by Redstone development that has taken an important corridor and habit away from them, so that they're pushed into town more.

as a community I think we do a pretty good job at reducing attractant and being bear smart, but fact of the matter is is that no matter how great we do as a community THE BEARS WILL BE IN TOWN EVERY SPRING AND FALL!!!  This is part of living here, we hav bears and we're in their travel corridor from higher elevation dens to lower feeding areas where food is available in spring.  They're going to be here every spring, garbage or not.

  This is also not the first time bears have been shot in a person's home in Rossland, and I'm sure it was stressful and traumatizing.  But if you live in bear country and they get into your house, that's your faul, plain and simple.  Sure you guys made a simple mistake and forgot the door, shit happens.  But it's YOUR house and YOUR responsibility to secure YOUR home while living in bear country.  "My family was in Danger today.  And it wasn't our fault."  Actually it was, you failed to secure your door while living in bear country during spring.  It's YOUR home, YOUR respsponsibilty, it's on YOU, it's not the communites respsponsibilty to secure YOUR home.  Although I'm saddened to hear about bears getting shot, I do believe you did the right thing in calling the CO to protect your family.   But it's the result of a situation that YOU created.  I'm guessing its pretty unlikely that your family has ever left the basement door open during the winter when it would cost you money.  Yeah, shit happens and complacency sucks, but take responsibility for your actions.  "The community is habitualizing bears. This is not okay."  Screw you.  This community does extremely well with showing consideration to bears and other wildlife.  As mentioned Ive lived here 27 years and Ive been fortunate to have never had a bad experience with a bear ever, in town or in the bush, because I've been educated on how to treat and respect them since I could walk.

  Here's some proactive advice to ensure "that this never happens again!", close and lock your doors when living in bear country in the spring, take responsibility when you f**k up. 

I'm sorry when anyone has to go through something like this.  There are a few improvements we can ALL make to discourage bears from coming into town. 

*Put recycling boxes out the morning of recycling day.  I often see recycling put out the day before recycling day with pizza boxes, juice containers, etc., which are ALL attractants.  Can the City not enforce this?

*Don't put garbage out early and without bags - while ravens are often the culprits who get into it, the garbage is also a bear attractant. Again, maybe the City can enforce?

*Don't have OPEN composts that are not properly managed; vegetable and fruit waste, coffee grounds and egg shells tossed into piles in attract not just wildlife, but dogs and cats.  (Before this starts another conversation, no, the pets should not be off their own property, but sometimes the scent draws them TO the open composts.)

Just a few thoughts. 

Last week I spoke to the city about the garbage bylaw enforcement.

Cynthia@rossland.ca requested that offenders can be reported to her, for an initial warning (an email with address, date, time will suffice)

They are currently hiring a bylaw officer (starting in a couple of weeks), so look for more proactive efforts going forward.

On a pro-active note, a friend gave me a tip on how to minimize waste odours from the under-sink garbage container. I've followed his advice since it was offered this past weekend, after I mentioned that a bear had stood with its front paws on my kitchen window sniffing at the obvious odour escaping from it. His advice was to place all odour-producing kitchen waste (food scraps, styrofoam meat trays, cold cut wrappers, etc) in a bag kept in the freezer. Put that bag in your garbage the moring of collection. Bears get no scent to attract them and as a bonus the house smells better. 

Burning off excess BBQ grease/scraps, on high temp for 5 minutes after cooking, then removing/washing the grease pan is another good idea. I had what can only be described as a very courteous and dexterous bear remind me of that one recently. I found the drip tray laying undamaged on the patio, my new BBQ and dust cover unscathed, positioned exactly as I'd left them the night before. Stealthy.

Dstreliof, thanks so much for your kind comments. Much appreciated. Yeah it was our fault that we left our door unlatched. Yep, our fault 100%.

but guess what? We didn't make those bears garbage bears, the community did. There are people in this community who are great at managing their attractants, and there are people who aren't. The City doesn't enforce garbage management, and this happens every year.

collective responsibility. Collective action. Collective impact.

blame us all you want, we don't care. This is a community problem, and doesn't sit on our shoulders alone.

thanks again for being so kind.

I like the comments made by rosslandskibike....just to add to that, I have adapted the habit of washing all of my recyclable objects with soap- I actually throw containers in the dishwasher as part of my routine. I started this after finding a peanut butter jar out in our side yard one year.

We have bears through our yard as a matter of course every season too- I agree that despite our best efforts, we will always have these bears poking through our stuff. It's a challenge to grow our food (and especially annoying to play the outlast game with the bears for our plums that we are trying to frost off for vodka!) but we manage. Having a very annoying and yappy dog seems to help.

We had a young cub visiting us on our patio last week, and a baby bear attempting to walk in our back door as my husband was walking out- luckily he is a grown man and was able to get the bear out easily.

I am glad that your family is relatively ok Miche, I know that you guys had a tough go with bears last year as well. Keep on keepin on!

Gwen

You're welcome!  For sure, you didn't make them garbage bears, (more likely Ferraro's and the Museum dumpsters did.) but the community didnt leave your house accessible to bears.  That being said if your house was secure would the bears have moved onto the chickens? Then we're back to a reglar bear complaint/encounter that really wouldn't have gotten so much attention.  And for what it's worth, I agree with the lack of bylaw enforcement, which enacted would probably steer this whole thing in a positive direction.

@rosslandskibike - Yes, this is a great idea and one that I've been doing for a long time. ANYTHING that is going to be smelly in the garbage goes into a bag in the freezer and is only added to the garbage on the morning I put it out for collection. This works really well! I've never had ravens or bears or dogs get at my garbage. I've used a garbage can forever but it is not dog or bear proof. It takes a little while to establish the habit but it's no more difficult than remembering your shopping bags when you go to the store. I had to start by putting up large notes for myself or putting up a pop-up reminder on my (online) calendar. 

As for contained compost, I'm not entirely sure about this. I think you'd have to build a pretty tough enclosure to keep out a bear. If they can break into a car or a locked shed, they can dismantle most compost enclosures. As for the plastic ones, they don't even keep out dogs, let alone bears. 

Dstrelioff - I can nearly double your years of living here and my opinion is that a bad experience can happen to ANYone, no matter how well they are educated and prepared. Of course, one can lessen the odds of a bad experience but sometimes you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. None of us can predict what any animal will do in every circumstance. 

MountainMitch: You're probably right. I do remember seeing the occasional bear in town but definitely nowhere near as much as now. We grew up playing in the woods nearby our homes and I don't remember ever having a bear scare but I suppose we were plenty noisy. I'm trying to figure out how we compare in bear attractants now - there was no recycling in those days. I doubt most people were composting. Garbage pickup was curbside by the City and if you had anything extra, you drove it out to the dump. 

Miche - as for the basement door, don't beat yourself up too much. Bears have been coming in patio doors and front doors of houses around town too, and often when the people are at home. Once a bear is in the house (especially if it panics and starts acting threatening), there's really no choice.

Just to reiterate a couple opinions, it would be great for a BC Widlife Officer to host an information session in Rossland every spring.

No, the bears wouldn't have moved on to our chickens. They weren't and aren't interested. They weren't and aren't interested in our compost. They went right past BOTH without even looking.

Just exactly the same as every single bear this year. In 5 years, we haven't ever had this many bears on our property in this short amount of time.

Not.one.single.bear.went.near.our.chickens.or.our.compost. Not one.

Dstreliof - I didn't ever say that the community left our god damn door open, did I?!!! What we are saying is that the community, as a whole - that includes us, needs to own the god damn fact that bears are a PROBLEM here, every single year, and something needs to change!!!

Could you imagine if my kids watched me get mauled by bears yesterday, in our own home? The potential was present for that to happen.

Our mistake of not pulling the door as tight as it should have been closed, is not the reason these bears are dead. These bears were dead anyways.

AND - the bear who got in the door - we got that bear out. It came back with the other bear cub AND THEY BROKE OUR FREAKING WINDOW. These bears were dead anyways.

So what is the community as a whole - together - going to do to make sure no more bears die this year? To make sure that nobody else lives through a nightmare like we did? 

Everyone freaks about the bears in town, anyone wondering why they are here? Perhaps it is the mass destruction of thier natural habitat all around our town? Anyone gone out to see any of the recent logging done in our watershed? How about in and around our beloved blackjack trails? Or maybe the "selective" mess made above the gas line and the clear-cutting in the violin lake watershed? As a good friend suggested, " maybe these logging company's should be held responsible and provide electric fencing for any resident who requests one? What is the real benefit to our community to allow these timber "harvesters" to decimate the hillsides all around town with no real benefit to anyone but themselves? I am not anti logging, I make a living with a powersaw, but there just has to be a better way than they are currently conducting thier buisness in the forest. Bummer about the bears. Bummer for the folks this incident affected, but I think I made this prediction on Bhubble a week ago. My 2 cents.

Black bears are primarly scavangers, and our town is situated right in prime habitat... of course their strong sense of smell will bring them into town; both habituated and non-habitutated. I wouldn't go blaming "mass destruction"... human expansion will continue. 

Anyway hopefully something happens from this thread.

I used to like people, not anymore, not since we've been overtaken with self entitlement, I want, I need, me me me. "Ya I want chickens, I want ducks, I want apple trees but no way am I picking the fruit near Fall, I have too much to do, no time, I'm in a hurry, I, I, I, me, me, me, gotta put the garbage out tonight, I have no time in the morning, s**t did I lock the door? Oh well I'll do it later". 

I'm done trying to figure out people. people are stupid, bears (all wildlife) has life dialed in, people could learn so much from nature. Too bad they're in so much of a hurry all the time.  :(

DW - If you're calling me and my family stupid, I welcome you to our home to tell us to our faces. That comment is not fair, for us, or for anyone. If you have nothing nice to say, stay out of the conversation.

Here's my idea. From this point forth, if any person wants to discuss what happened at our house yesterday, call me or better yet, come speak to us face to face.

OTHERWISE, lets use this situation and this thread to spearhead productive, and positive ideas to move forth with, on how as a community we can come together to find solutions to this problem. Some folks in this thread are throwing out good ideas, lets use that as positive motivation and keep going with it.

Here's a workshop of interest: The sustainability commission is offering a composting workshop to help people learn how to compost effectively and in wildlife-safe ways. This is a great opportunity for anyone to learn more about how to keep animals out of compost.

What other things can we do / work on?

Really, enough with the pointing fingers and venting frustrations. It appears that some people are living in their own virtual protected world and choose to live here for all sorts of different reasons. Maybe to escape something, I don’t know. Several people choose to live here, at least I do, because of the immediate access to the wild. The bears seem to like what we offer them as well. Eating and breeding is what they do. Last year sucked for berries and plants in the wild. So they came into town more frequently looking for food and found lots of it. Now those cubs from last year on their own for their first time. What else are they supposed to do?

Less than an hour ago, I had a young bear tear through a screen door to get into my kitchen. Strolled right past the fresh compost and garden. It must have smelled some good wor wonton soup. Fortunately, before the bear got all the way inside, I surprised the bear more than it surprised me.

Just try to use some common sense at minimizing the risk of these interactions. Try to view what smells good from a bear’s perspective. And yes, unintended face to face greetings occur regardless of what preventable methods are used. Guess I’ll be fixing a screen door this weekend. Cheers...

"These bears did not go near our chickens. Not our compost. Not our bbq. Not our vegetables. Not anything. None of it. They had no interest"

My question is have they in the past? Have you ever had any bear issues before or is this the first time? Just wondering why now? 

Sorry about your experience, we have had a few encounters over the years in the house. It can be terrifying to come face to face with a bear roaming around your living room or in your mudroom or basement. But we DID not have 3 children to protect. Terrifying for everyone involved im sure.....

The issues in our neighbourhood (lots of bears last summer/fall) were about unpicked fruit, composts,  lots of dead chickens and curbside garbage days= Food for bears.

Most residents of Rossland do a good job of distracting bears. IE no compost, no chickens, no garbage, no fruit lingering in trees. 

Until we stop our curbside garbage program Sring through Fall (which is absurd in every way in my opinion) and create a seasonal dump, those bears are going to be around looking for whatever "treats" we humans are putting out on garbage/recycling day...............and because of that curbside garbage pick up we have in our mountain town, those said bears will sniff around and also find your compost, chickens and fruit while they are at it. If they can sniff something in your basement or your car or house, think about what a plastic bag full of scraps is like.........its just too easy for them and its a bloody shame. 

It seems to me that our current bear aware does very little to curb the bear-human conflict in Rossland.

To me, having curbside garbage blows my mind. How can a community be "bear aware" and leave garbage outside? I always feel like Ive missed part of this program?  Shouldnt The bear aware program step one be: 1. Never leave garbage unattended outside of your property IE: curbside, EVER?

That dump and recycling center  needs to be opened again even if only seasonally, then maybe we can minimize these bears and their never ending taste for garbage bages, chickens, fruit and compost

 Personally now, because of our past experiences here and learning to respect these bears by chnaging our habbits and patterns, we've had one bear in 4 years on our property and we DONT leave our garbage curbside in Spring Summer or Fall, we go to Trail.  

Bears are always here so just be careful...sometimes the unexpected happens and we learn from our oop's.  A town fruit pile like we had in the bad old days would for sure decrease the intown bear troubles but it will never stop it...WE are the interlopers here not the bears this is their land not ours...Why can't Alpine provide bear proof containers...seems like a no brainer to me...We also take our trash to Trail...far too many times we have seen bears (and many unleashed dogs) enjoying a tasty snack of legally placed trash .

Bears are always here so just be careful...sometimes the unexpected happens and we learn from our oop's.  A town fruit pile like we had in the bad old days would for sure decrease the intown bear troubles but it will never stop it...WE are the interlopers here not the bears this is their land not ours...Why can't Alpine provide bear proof containers...seems like a no brainer to me...We also take our trash to Trail...far too many times we have seen bears (and many unleashed dogs) enjoying a tasty snack of legally placed trash .

So....9:30 a.m. and just came in from watching a mama bear with two little cubs knock over and open the neighbour's garbage can, one with good strong clamps on it, and eat through it for awhile. There are dogs on both side of this neighbour that were barking the whole time and a few people out there so she took off a few minutes ago. But it just goes to show you: it doesn't matter how late you put out your garbage or how well you try to contain it.

Question: If you take your garbage to Trail, do you take it right to the dump? If so, do you have to check through or is there a bin at which you can dump off a regular garbage bag?

Sportz. Yes, you can dump household garbage.  There is a fee. You just tell them what you have. 

https://www.rdkb.com/Services/EnvironmentalServices2014/WasteManagement/...

You can also do ALL of your recycling at the same time for free and never put anything out in front of your house again. There are massive bins to do that. 

We lived in Whistler years ago and when we moved here thought "Seriously?? we can put or garbage out on the street? "

I also remember The City of Rossland bought fancy new garbage cans, put them downtown and the bears were literally scooping food out of them...This too was confusing in a mountain town full of bears, shoppers, kids, ppl in general mulling about and bears eating right out of the garbage cans.

For the first lady who posted this: The French school has a public city garbage can located near the street one of those green ones. Someone forgot to lock it and theres garbage everywhere.....so yah, ppl make mistakes, forget to close and lock doors. 

Us: 3 garbage cans destroyed, one bear in the living room, one in my car, one on top of the jeep, many on the deck, one staring at me through the kitchen window......so its not like we havent had our share of situations but each time its like?? Ok what did WE do this time to attract that bear? and what can WE do to make sure it doesnt happen again? 

Anyway, all garbage/recycling is in our basement behind 2 doors, everything incl recycling goes to the dump every 2 weeks. I also sprinkle cayenne pepper on the basement door step lol (just in case)

Sportz - If you take your garbage to the dump in trail you will wait in line for the scales, they will ask you where you are from, if your honest and say Rossland they will charge you to drop off the garbage. Doesn't matter if it has a garbage sticker on the bag as Alpine who manage the dump do not have the contract for garbage pick up in Rossland.

Enough of blaming each other!

We can all blame city hall though. Why did they allow garbage collection with plastic bags until last year? Why forcing us to use containers but NOt bear proof ones?! Was it a smart idea??? not bear proof ones? Why can't they take responsibility and provide us with a safe place and system for garbage disposal during bear months? It is ok to use garbage bags or normal containers for half of the year but from may until november  they could provide us with an alternative. in AB where I lived we had bear proof communal metal containers in a gated area. Our municipality should provide this kind of service instead of hoping we go and dispose of our garbage in a nearby munucipality, individually. We do pay taxes, maybe instead of flower beds and benches and sculptures we should have more services aimed at the residents.something to make our life safer and easier. 

Some of the comments here are so sad And worrying! Caring more about animals than fellow human beings, a mother and her children in her own home! All this hate! Bhubble certainly doesn't help building a great sense of community around here

 I am so sorry you experienced this.. I only heard about it on CBC this morning. All I could think was that you were so brave... not sure what I would have done.

  Take good care of yourself.... find a healing path for you and your kids to overcome this. 

Some of the replies on here made me more sad than hearing about the bears being put down. You need love and support right now, not personal attacks.

  love and light

onward and forward

big hug

The solution here is obvious.

When the forest sends their bears, they're not sending their best. They're sending bears that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems to us. They're bringing curiosity, they're bringing cheekyness and some, I assume, are good bears.

I will build, the greatest wall...that the bears have ever seen. Seriously folks, it's going to be fantastic...and the bears...will pay for the wall

May + Lizzy.... thank you <3.

We knew that when we shared with the community what happened (with hopes of fuelling proactive community togetherness that could foster change), that we would receive some negative messages and comments.

But nothing prepared me for the onslaught of verbal attacks we've received, and are still receiving. It makes it all hurt even more, and demonstrates to us that perhaps the idea of working together to be better as a community is way farther off than we thought. Its really sad.

Your messages were very kind and considerate, and thank you so much for caring. <3 <3 <3 <3

It is possible to create a Bear Smart Community if everyone works together and takes responsibility for managing they're own attractants. Check out this web site for information on how to manage attractants, how to avoid bear-human conflicts, and alternative methods for resolution of these conflicts: http://www.bearsmart.com/ 
Hopefully we can minimize these situations in the future and can safely share this great area that we all call home!

OrthoM: that's brilliant! You should run for mayor.  This city needs a guy like you at the helm!  Common sense solutions AND without adding to our tax burden.  We could brand it "The Great Bear Wall".  Tourists from around the world would come to check it out. The tourists could watch the pesky bears from the top of the wall and we could sell them (the tourists) our bags of garbage for them to throw over the wall to the bears. 

My name is Roy. I have the misfortune to live next door. Bears and racoons are drawn to this property. Over the last two years there has been a number of bears and racoons that have killed their chickens. Those bear cubs were scouting the chicken koop for three days prior to the day they walked in through an open door.

Roy, don't lie, you don't know the facts. Nothing is scouting our electrified chicken coop but YOU who can't stop taking photographs and videos of it to take to council. If this community loses its privilege to host backyard chickens, everyone will have you and you alone to thank.

What is really amazing to us is the rumours, gossip and nastiness that can spread threw this town like wildfire sometimes. As we've mentioned before, if anyone is curious or has questions about this incident that shouldn't ever happen to anyone, you're welcome to come visit and have a conversation with us.

We'd even be happy to demonstrate how the door was closed but unlatched. 

In the meantime, our family would appreciate some kindness and respect - it isn't like we invited bears into our house, it isn't like we wanted these bears to die, and it isn't like we don't do everything in our power to manage our bear attractants. Weve had Wildsafe BC tell us our property is great, and they even taught us how to electric fence our coop and garden, and video taped it as an educational resource.

Enough already with the lies, disrespect and hatred.

Hi, I've read this whole thread. We are moving to Rossland later this month and have not previously lived in an area where there are a lot of bears. We know the basics, but someone mentioned that Bear Aware meetings might help. I think that an evening(s) where people can share information and ideas, etc., would be very helpful and we would certainly attend. I hope someone takes this further.

Hi, I've read this whole thread. We are moving to Rossland later this month and have not previously lived in an area where there are a lot of bears. We know the basics, but someone mentioned that Bear Aware meetings might help. I think that an evening(s) where people can share information and ideas, etc., would be very helpful and we would certainly attend. I hope someone takes this further.

I'm also considering a move to Rossland. There must be bylaws regarding chickens on the City of Rossland's website, but I couldn't find them. What are the rules there? According to the BC Bear Aware representative quoted in this article "chicken coops rival garbage as the top bear attractant in urban areas." He also stated that electric fencing is the best defence. I know that the family at the centre of this conversation stated that they had electric fencing. Is this a requirement in Rossland?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/backyard-chickens-attract...

I have to jump in here as this is my first time on Bhubble. I have to agree with Roy about this property. I dont live far away and concur with the things he has said and seen.

 As this is now your second major bear incident in the last year I would strongly reconsider where you think we are in this community with regards to wether we should be allowing residents to farm in an urban setting. Your residential farming, which i personally think is rediculous, is not the only urban farm to be attacked. Your mistake last year may well be the reason these bears came back this year. 

There is only one way to do it but most of the people around here want their cake and eat it too. Well.....you cant.....at least not right now. I have lived in this town for 35 years...no chickens...no.garbage....no fruit trees.....and guess what no problems.

This is on you and nobody else. Pull back and live in an urban setting in a mountain town they way it was meant to be. Manage your property with COMPLETE diligence and you will be fine.

If not, head to the Slocan Valley and live it up.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/backyard-chickens-attract-hungry-bears-1.1182835

I would also click on the link in the above post where bear experts are saying backyard chicken coops attract bears and this is BC

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/backyard-chickens-attract-hungry-bears-1.1182835

I would also click on the link in the above post where bear experts are saying backyard chicken coops attract bears and this is BC

Interesting scientific data from Colorado. Apparently a fed bear is NOT a dead bear after all. Hungry bears given the option prefer wild food.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/04/08/colorado-study-upends-ass...

Hey SwilliAM or Roy, here's a website with information on even more beat attractants.  Please let me know if you are perfect in not having any bear attractants. 

http://www.bearsmart.com/live/managing-attractants/

P.S. You sound like awesome neighbours.

Bears are people to!

Poking the bear are you??

I was happy this post was "dead"

buddy of mine had a great idea, get rid of all the fruit tree's in town, i mean all of them! I'd bet in a couple years the number of bears in town would drop significantly.