WildSafe B.C. is taking a proactive approach to City of Nanaimo residents leaving their garbage cans out too early by tagging the bins with an educational sticker with the date and time it was spotted out.
According to Nanaimo's long-standing municipal solid waste collection bylaw, garbage bins can be left out no earlier than 5 a.m. on collection day. Failure to adhere to this can result in a ticket with a fine in the hundreds of dollars, courtesy of conservation officers.
Kiera Brown, WildSafe B.C.'s Nanaimo coordinator, said many people seem to not be aware of the importance of the bylaw.
"WildSafe B.C. is always focused on mitigating human-wildlife conflict," Brown said. "We do a lot of door-to-door education in high-risk areas or in areas we see reports of bear encounters … This isn't an enforcement or a method for delivering fines by any means, it's just an educational tool to help people feel more responsible for their impact and educate them on the dangers of placing those attractants out the night before collection."
Placing garbage out early can attract wildlife, including black bears, which will then wander into neighbourhoods smelling it as food. Through continuous unintentional feedings, the bear becomes climatized, and will then be less afraid of people. The black bear's fear of people is the primary way of preventing bear attacks.
"It can put people at risk and can cause property damage as traditional hazing techniques become less effective as bears become no longer fearful of people," Brown said, adding that hazing includes banging pots and pans together to scare the animal away, or setting off a car alarm. "This is both dangerous for the communities themselves and the safety of them, but that also then puts the bears at risk because they often have to be destroyed … being a safety concern."
According to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, conservation officers killed just one black bear in Nanaimo in 2023 after a record high of 10 the year before.
Currently, Brown said bear reports have been coming in on a predictable weekly basis, which she attributes to the animals learning the garbage collection schedule.
"When people put these bins out early on the curbside this is usually when animals will get the first positive reward for coming into a neighbourhood."
For the bin tagging program, WildSafe B.C. is currently focusing on south Nanaimo. Brown said she would like the Regional District of Nanaimo to begin funding the program, so they can expand to other "hot-spots" such as Cedar and Lantzville.
"We're definitely trying to push for people to no longer store their bins outside, because I know that's something that's quite common in Nanaimo specifically and we're really trying to make Nanaimo a more wild safe place to help keep wildlife wild."
In 2019, conservation officers first started issuing fines for Nanaimo residents setting bins out early, claiming that warnings were "not helping."
Brown said that while they have had to make repeat visits to some of the same properties, she estimates it to only be about 10 per cent of the homes. In those instances, WildSafe B.C. knocks on the person's door and speaks to the resident directly. The other 90 per cent, she said, adjusted how they put out their garbage when WildSafe B.C. went back to check.
"I think there's a lot of people who just don't realize they're in a high-risk area until they actually see a bear on their doorstep," she said.
WildSafe B.C.'s bin tagging program began in late August and is expected to run until the end of November, then start back up in late winter or spring. For more information, she suggests people check out the WildSafe B.C. Nanaimo Facebook page at http://facebook.com/wildsafebcnanaimo.
"It's a great source if people want to reach out if they have questions. We also post a lot of information, [and] any relevant events or news stories we like to share on there."
