Creating Bear Aware Communities workshop

• Start Date: November 02, 2005
• End Date: November 03, 2005
• City: Revelstoke, BC

A summary of the workshop presentations is available here as a 1.46 MB PDF document.

Workshop description

Communities adopting Bear Smart programs reduce the number of bear / human conflicts, thereby making their towns safer and reducing the number of black and grizzly bears that are destroyed. Yet many communities continue to allow practices that draw bears into our neighbourhoods, creating on-going hazards for people and bears alike. The Bear Smart Community Program, created by the BC Ministry Environment, the Union of BC Municipalities, and the BC Conservation Foundation, provides direction for municipalities, regional districts, businesses, interest groups, and citizens to work together to eliminate the root causes of bear / human conflicts. Bear Smart accommodates the individual needs of each community.

On November 2, participants heard about the components of the provincial Bear Smart Community Program and how its principles were being put into action in various communities around the province. Participants were introduced to people and resources that can support them in making their communities Bear Aware and Bear Smart.

On November 3, participants from Bear Aware and conservation–oriented community groups took part in an interactive workshop to learn the steps to achieving sustainability, including an understanding of the factors that promote sustainability, how to define goals, plan programs, find funding, etc. This workshop was led by Kylie Hutchinson, of Community Solutions Planning and Evaluation (http://www.communitysolutions.ca).

The following agencies contributed financial or in-kind support for this workshop. We are please to have worked with:

• BC Conservation Foundation
• Big Red Consulting, Nelson
• British Columbia Ministry of Environment
• City of Canmore
• City of Revelstoke
• Columbia Basin Trust, through the Columbia Kootenay Fisheries Renewal Partnership
• Columbia Shuswap Regional District
• Habitat Conservation Trust Fund
• North Shore Bear Network
• Parks Canada, Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks
• Revelstoke Bear Aware Society
• Siderius Ecological Consulting, Nelson.