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;
• Of the 227 Whistler locations - i.e. strata condominium properties and businesses - audited to date, 56 have bear-proofed their garbage management or taken significant steps in that direction; 134 were already bear-proof and needed no modifications;
• In a separate landscaping audit, the Get Bear Smart Society, of which Dolson is executive director, 10 locations were audited. At four of those locations, some 120 mountain ash trees, which are considered bear attractants, were removed. The largest of those, the Residences at Nita Lake, 100 trees were removed, along with 11 at Blueberry Hill Estates, eight at the Whistler Blackcomb administration building and two at Whistler municipal hall.
• And the most significant number of all: To date in 2009, officials have yet to shoot a bear that became a safety concern after becoming habituated to human food sources in Whistler. Dolson said she believes the only unnatural bear death here this year was one that was killed in a collision with a vehicle on Highway 99.

"It's been a fantastic year, and we just couldn't be happier," Dolson said on Dec. 4.

Said Doyle, "We had a rash of home invasions in July. We weren't sure initially whether we had the right bear, but after we relocated it, the home invasions stopped, so we're confident that we got the right one."

Bear-conflict calls were also down in Pemberton (61 calls) and Mount Currie (60), though Doyle said, "there were some issues with bears getting into fruit trees, garbage and bird seed."

Noting that nine bears were shot and killed in Whistler after entering homes repeatedly in 2007, and 12 in 2008, Dolson and Doyle attributed the drop to three factors: The abundant crop of natural food (mostly berries) on the mountains, the reduction in the bear population over the previous two bear seasons, and community-wide efforts to reduce attractants.

"I'd like to thank the residents and businesses in Whistler who took the time and spent the money to upgrade their garbage storage," Doyle said. "Several stratas actually upgraded their garbage facilities this year, and that made a difference. We had very few conflicts related to bears accessing their storage facilities."

Dolson said Blueberry Hill Estates had been a high-conflict area until recently, when the strata council - apparently buoyed by a bear having bluff-charged by a resident while walking her dog the previous day - immediately had its mountain ash trees removed.

"Whistler Blackcomb has had substantial conflict with those mountain ash trees near the Admin building, so those had to come down," Dolson said. "Sometimes it's just a matter of having the budget available to move forward and sometimes it's a matter of reaching the tipping point, with conflicts time and time again."

Most of the mountain ash trees that were removed were replanted on the mountains, in areas frequented by bears. It's not an exact science - Dolson said she expects a few of those trees to die because of poor soil conditions or other issues - but she said the intent is to replace non-natural food sources such as garbage with more natural sources situated in low-conflict areas frequented by bears.

B.C.'s Ministry of Environment rates an eight per cent annual mortality rate as "sustainable" for bear populations, so obviously the 21 bears killed over two years (and at least a half dozen on the highway), given an approximate local black bear population of 100, was not sustainable. The removal of that many "problem" bears from the population was likely a factor in this year's low conflict numbers, Dolson said.

Doyle agrees - with one caveat.

"Yes, you'd think that there'd definitely be a correlation there, but having said that, if there are attractants, other animals will move into those areas and take their place," he said.

A few bears are still gaining access to human food. Doyle said one bear recently trapped in an underground parkade was identified as the same one that had been hand-fed pizza from the 7-Eleven.

"It doesn't help when people feed them, and that's illegal activity. If we can figure out who did it we will charge them," Doyle said.

He added, "We're not out of the woods yet. There are still a few bears around, and some bears have stayed out all winter in the past. It won't help if people decide to hand-feed them pizza. We don't want to have to worry about bear conflicts in January and February."