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.

Last year no bears were shot — though admittedly, at least one died in a collision with a vehicle on the highway. Bear experts, including the head of the small Conservation Officer Service contingent for our region, cited an abundant summer berry crop, efforts by strata councils and business owners (urged on by the Get Bear Smart Society) to upgrade garbage handling and storage facilities and the removal of fruit-bearing plants such as mountain ash trees from some high-traffic areas among the possible reasons for the clean slate, and for a decrease in the number of bear conflict calls in Whistler, Pemberton and Mount Currie. The fact that so many “problem” bears had been shot during the previous two seasons — reducing the overall population as well as the competition among bears for the available food — was cited as another possible factor.

So, efforts to better manage attractants continue and all is well, right? Well, not so fast.

The summer of 2009 was the fourth consecutive year that Whistler had a dedicated Bear Response Officer, paid jointly by the provincial and municipal governments, whose main job was to follow up on calls to the bear hotline and, in turn, follow bears, haze them where necessary — shooting off bear bangers, having dogs chase them, and trying to ensure that they don’t feel comfortable around human developments.

Since then, though, the provincial government has seen fit to cut funding for the position, and on April 20, Whistler council followed suit by trimming its $30,000 annual contribution. Instead, the RMOW will pay for one of the region’s four conservation officers to stay in a Whistler hotel, as well as vehicle costs, whenever it’s deemed necessary.

We sincerely hope the new regime is effective. We’re heartened by the fact that trusted bear researcher Lori Homstol is still in town delivering the Bear Aware program and monitoring our local bear population. This week, though, we had our first reports of bears in Whistler Village this season. While we trust that local RCMP officers — now the first line of “defence” — will do their level best to use the non-lethal bear management tools at their disposal, we worry that the lack of a dedicated Bear Response Officer will result in higher levels of conflict and habituation and that more animals will wind up being shot.

We also believe Whistler’s current garbage collection system is inadequate and that because of those problems, bears will continue to come into conflict situations until it’s changed. Face it: In addition to all the reasons cited for last year’s success, luck also played a role. We’ll be watching closely to see whether that run of good fortune continues.