A Naramata woman is afraid a person will be attacked by a bear wandering through the village scavenging for food out of people’s garbage.
Karen Kribernegg, who lives along Mill Road in Naramata, said already one baby bear has been trapped on her property and she has come face to face with a black bear on her porch. On Monday morning she awoke to find her daughter’s backseat had been ripped to shreds by a bear. The family had been transporting their garbage in the trunk of a vehicle into Penticton to a family member’s house, because during this time of the year bears are frequently seen looking for food in dumpster bins.
“He got into the back seat and completely tore it out on one side to get into the trunk,” said Kribernegg. “The back of my daughter’s car was starting to smell like garbage, even though she had none in there at the time, and I guess because of the smell the bear was attracted to it.”
Within the past week, she left her porch door open and encountered a bear sniffing her flower pots.
“Somebody in this village is going to get hurt,” said Kribernegg, who would like to see a community dumpster established in Naramata.
Tom Chapman, Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen Area E director, said putting up a community dumpster will ultimately attract more bears to the area. He said his family puts their garbage in the freezer and doesn’t take it out until they are ready to take it to the dump.
He said it is a combination of factors, from a lot of cool weather to more fenced-off orchards, that channel the bears to the village and the amount of garbage being left out by residents.
“In this community and others, no offence, but people have been slack,” said Chapman. “If they come across anything that resembles food they are going to start hanging out in that area. You just can’t do it. It’s like hanging your diamonds or jewelry out on the door knob of your house and expect thieves aren’t going to take it.”
Chapman said for the past six or seven years the RDOS invites Bear Smart spokesmen to give talks at the schools and through community grants in aid literature has also been sent out to the community.
“So, people are blissfully ignoring a lot of this stuff until it actually affects them,” he said.
