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All Whistler Articles
A Whistler man faces a bylaw infraction of having his dog off leash, and possibly a charge of endangering wildlife, after RCMP officers responding to a situation were forced to shoot and kill south of Function Junction last week.
On Friday (May 21) at around 5 p.m., officers responded to complaints that several people had stopped along Highway 99 about two kilometres south of Function Junction to take pictures of a bear grazing in the ditch on the west side of the highway, RCMP Sgt. Shawn LeMay said. In addition to causing traffic congestion, witnesses said one woman was getting dangerously close to the animal, he said.
Conservation officers found themselves hard at work alongside highway police this past weekend as they dealt with a rash of bear deaths that has already eclipsed last year's total.
As many as four bear deaths were reported on the Sea to Sky Highway this past weekend, although B.C.'s Conservation Officer Service can only be certain of three of them.
A shotgun is out of unsafe hands, a black bear with a taste for livestock is dead and several recreational are users are wiser after a step up in conservation officer patrols over the May long weekend.
Conservation officers from the Ministry of Environment, teamed up with the Ministry of Forests and Range, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts and the RCMP to ensure visitors and residents were complying to rules while enjoying recreation sites and using forest service roads.
Golfers at a Whistler hotel and resort may hear "roar" instead of "fore" during their time on the links thanks to a few furry visitors.
While golf and beers are a natural fit for many Canadians, golf and bears are piquing the interest of tourists at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler.
Whistler escaped Bear Season 2009 without a bruin having been shot by conservation officers, so now is an opportune time, if budgets have to be cut, to slash the position of Bear Response Officer, right? Well, maybe.
In the two years leading up to the summer of 2009, conservation and RCMP officers shot a total of 21 black bears deemed to have become a hazard to public safety — i.e. they had lost their fear of humans to the point where they were entering homes, businesses and vehicles in search of food. The carnage was, of course, not the bears’ fault — lack of proper management of bear attractants, especially garbage, by humans was largely to blame for attracting segments of Whistler’s much-beloved bear population into town in search of a free meal.
The Whistler RCMP used non-lethal techniques on bears this week.
The first incident was reported in the late morning of May 11, and involved a bear that had somehow found its way into the fenced area surrounding the Whistler Medals Plaza. The police stationed an officer near the playground, and a bear banger device was used to scare the bear into a wooded area to the north of the plaza.
The oldest mother black bear in the Whistler ski area pushes her forepaws up through dense forest litter and across the rim of the deep daybed. Her chest cavity slumps into the daybed's 40-cm deep depression as the sigh of physical relief momentarily empties her stress-ridden body. Her son squirms up against her, wedging his 20-kg body between mom and a towering escape cover of old growth Douglas fir.
After four years of having a dedicated seasonal bear response officer based in Whistler, the B.C. Conservation Officer Service is discontinuing the position.
Instead, a conservation officer sergeant and three other full-time officers will be based in Squamish and serve the area from Lions Bay to D’Arcy, Heather Beresford, the municipality’s environmental stewardship manager, told council at Tuesday’s (April 20) regular meeting.
At least five male black bears are active in the Whistler valley. Despite the valley's mild winter, a higher than normal snowpack occurs above mid-mountain where the bulk of bears hibernate, delaying emergence of males one-two weeks. Deep snows will keep many female bears (because they emerge later) denning longer into May.
During the 1998-99 winter of record snowpack, an immature female denned on Nov. 2, 1998 and emerged 199 days later on May, 19, 1999.
With black bears, there's no innuendo.
There's no double entendre or silent treatment, no mixed signals, false accusations or reading between the lines. Bears wear no "social mask," they never worry about manners and they never lie.
When a bear wants to communicate, he sends a direct message. With his stance and facial expression, a few grunts, huffs and teeth-clacks, even a charge, he says something very specific. Whether ordering cubs up a tree for safety, inviting another bear to play or warning hikers they've come too close and telling them to back off, bears' signals are loud and clear.
I stand 44 metres from a busy blue run on a warm spring day. Skiers and riders dot the high elevation taking advantage of the 300-cm powder packed slope.
Kicking off my skis to anthropogenic chatter, in an otherwise wilderness solitude is an odd feeling. Because what I am about to do, is delve into one of the most secretive realms in nature before an audience oblivious to the fact.
Recently, the Grizzly Bear Outreach Project (GBOP) team skyped Get Bear Smart to learn more about creating bear smart communities in Washington. I'm sure many of you have the same questions, so I thought I'd provide a summary of the conversation.
WHISTLER, British Columbia - The late-night scratching at the door of my condo would not have been so alarming had I not known that this resort apparently was as appealing to bears as European vacationers. And, if what I'd read about the black bears was to be believed, this was no ordinary breed. These critters reportedly were capable of everything short of deciphering the NBA's salary cap. "Many of Whistler's bears have learned to do things like open car doors or hold spring-closed gates open," read one of the condo's brochures
I can no longer contain myself. With the latest notice from the Muni in last week's paper (Greetings Olympic Guests) I wonder if we will ever get a handle on the disconnect between disposing of our garbage and our desire to get everyone using public transit? The notice from the Muni lets visitors know that all household garbage must be disposed of at the Nesters site. But how do you get it there? It is not permitted on WAVE transit and most of these visitors have no vehicles.
When one of my sons asked a member of our current council how he could get rid of his garbage without having transport he was advised to hide it in a knapsack and take it on board the bus.
4,437 students and teachers in the corridor received a free pin this week.
Tom Thomson's idea to develop commemorative Whistler pins for the Olympics came to fruition Thursday as thousands of pins were distributed to students and teachers throughout the Sea to Sky corridor.
On Jan. 21 every child in the school district between D'arcy and Squamish received a free nickel-sized silver pin featuring a black bear, a red maple leaf and the word "Whistler" in blue capital letters.
Thomson called the pins the "Cubby," in honour of the Loonie and the Toonie coins. And he hopes during the Olympics the pins will become their own kind of currency as collectors from around the world vie for them.
GBS is very excited about the release of our new book. Sales look awesome. We are distributing the book locally ourselves. Virtually all suitable Whistler retail outlets are stocked up.
Whistler's favourite resident black bear may have gone into hibernation, or she may have met with some other fate.
The Get Bear Smart Society hasn't seen a trace of Jeanie since her tracking collar went offline in late October.
The bear, who's been called "the icon for Whistler," was fitted with a GPS radio collar that same month in order to monitor her movements. However a day after getting her collar her signal disappeared.
It takes a while to be considered a "local" in Whistler, but there's a select set of long-time residents who can safely claim that title without any qualms - Whistler's beloved black bears. The many black bears who live in the valley are a big part of the day-to-day lives of year-round residents, seasonal workers and tourists, who all feel a little chill of surprise run up their spines when they spy one of the ubiquitous ursine lumbering down the Valley Trail or searching for berries in the bushes.
A book by two local authors that seeks to dispel myths and misinformation about bears while feeding people's fascination with the ursine world has hit the shelves of local bookstores just in time for Christmas.
A Whistler Bear Story, written by Whistlerite Sylvia Dolson and Pemberton resident Katherine Fawcett, and featuring Dolson's full-colour photographs of Whistler bears, aims to "promote a deeper understanding of bears, one that transcends fears and misinformation" often passed along in exaggerated campfire stories and elsewhere, Dolson said.
Sylvia Dolson, an unabashed bear lover, likes to talk about statistics that don't relate to annual bear deaths in Whistler. She's got plenty of reasons to smile this year, because the only significant numbers relating to the 2009 bear season are all positive if you're a bear lover.
To wit:
* The number of calls to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service's human-bear conflict line was around 400, about half of what it was last year, and Conservation Officer Chris Doyle recently said he'd confident that the drop is an accurate reflection of the amount of activity taking place, not an indication that people were hesitant to call, as has been the case with some in the past;
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