Securing your property

Town bears aren't wandering in by chance — they're following a reward that's been available for days or weeks. Remove the reward and the visits usually stop.

Trash bins

Garbage is the number one reason a bear starts walking your street. One easy bin can hold a bear on the block for weeks.

1. 1Store bins inside a locked garage, shed or bear-resistant enclosure — not beside the house, not under the deck.
2. 2Put bins out on pickup morning only, after first light. Never the night before.
3. 3Freeze meat, fish and fruit scraps in a bag and drop them in the bin on the morning of collection.
4. 4Rinse bins with a little vinegar or diluted bleach once a month to kill the smell that lingers in the plastic.
5. 5If you use a bear-resistant bin, check the latch actually clicks shut every time — most failures are an unlatched lid.
6. 6Bring the empty bin back in the same day. An empty bin still smells like food.

Garage and outbuildings

An open garage is the classic first reward. Once a bear has been fed there, it will come back and test the door.

1. 1Keep the main door closed whenever you aren't standing in the garage — not 'mostly down'.
2. 2Fit a deadbolt or a hasp and padlock on the side door; a spring latch won't hold against a bear's weight.
3. 3Move freezers, pet food, birdseed, livestock feed and recycling into hard-sided containers with fastened lids.
4. 4Clean up spilled seed and dog kibble; check behind the shelves where it collects.
5. 5Store the BBQ and cooler inside only after they're cleaned — otherwise you've moved the smell indoors.
6. 6Sheds: reinforce the door frame with a steel strike plate and long screws. Bears peel thin frames off plywood walls.
7. 7Add a motion light over the garage door and the side path so you can see before you step out.

Fruit, compost, coops

Late summer and fall, a loaded fruit tree is a bigger draw than any garbage can — and it keeps a family of bears in the neighbourhood.

1. 1Pick ripe fruit as it comes, don't wait for the whole tree. Rake windfalls every evening.
2. 2If you can't use it, the local gleaning volunteers will pick it — ask in the WildSafeBC group.
3. 3Compost: no meat, fish, dairy or fruit scraps. Layer with leaves, turn it weekly, keep it closed.
4. 4Chickens, ducks, bees and small livestock: electric fencing, properly grounded, is the only reliable deterrent.
5. 5Feed livestock indoors or inside the fence line, and never leave feed sacks out overnight.
6. 6Take bird feeders down from spring until the first snow, and rake up the spill underneath.

If a bear is already testing doors, fences or bins on your property, report it on the RAPP line. Officers track the pattern, and early calls are what keep a bear from becoming a destroyed bear.