Residents say bear encounters are on the rise in BC community, where grizzly attacked school group

As BC Conservation officers continue to search for three grizzlies involved in Thursday’s attack on an elementary school group in Bella Coola, an incident residents say reflects years of increasing bear encounters in the remote Central Coast community.

At a news conference Sunday, Sgt. Jeff Tyer of the BC Conservation Officer Service said officials have installed trail cameras and tightened the search area to a few kilometers around the 4 Mile Subdivision, where the attack occurred, believing the bear is likely to return there.

Tyer said only one bear had been seen in the past 24 hours, and it was far from the site of the attack.

Three students and a teacher were hospitalized Thursday after a bear attacked a group of about 20 people, including teachers and Grade 4 and 5 students, in the Bella Coola community. 420 kilometers northwest of Vancouver as the crow flies,

The group was on a field trip at the time and were having lunch.

Conservation officials have since said they believe the attack involved a mother with two cubs.

Residents say human-bear contact has intensified

it’s cool a small unorganized community Surrounded by steep mountains and dense rainforest.

Known as the gateway to the Great Bear Rainforest, this is an area where encounters between people and wildlife are not uncommon.

But residents say conversations have intensified in recent years.

Noel Pootlas, hereditary chief of the Nuxalk Nation, said a new population of grizzlies began moving into the valley around 2018, after being pushed from their territory due to logging, drought and wildfires.

“The population is so big now that it’s probably doubled or tripled in our valley,” he said.

He says the community has faced dozens of incidents in the last seven years.

“Bears are getting into homes and they go onto porches where there’s dog food or cat food… and that’s a big risk to people.”

Pootlas says the Nuxalk have traditionally had a respectful relationship with bears, but the pressures of harvesting and climate change have changed that balance.

Local resident Maryanne Gurr said khaki Bears have become a regular and troublesome presence on his property.

She remembered seeing a mother bear and three cubs in her front garden a few years ago. when he tried to get out back door he Two more full-grown bears were found in his backyard.

“I was in tears, I was screaming,” she said.

In another incident, a bear broke into her house and stole food from her freezer.

“There were pork chops and homemade chili and chicken soup that I made so I could eat during the week and it was all over the floor and all over the backyard.”

“I can’t sleep at night thinking they’ll come back.”

Despite her fears, she says she doesn’t want to see the bears die.

“I love bears. I just want a solution where we can all be safe together,” she said. “They are breaking into houses and something has to be done otherwise more people will be injured or killed.”

FlourCK on schoolchildren and teachers has reignited the debate over the province’s grizzly bear hunting ban. BC Grizzly bear hunting banned in late 2017 With the exception of hunting by First Nations for food, social and ceremonial purposes.

Conservation officials say their current focus Thursday is to identify the bears involved attack.

Sergeant Tyer said there are a lot of bears in the area and the goal is to safely trap the animals, collect DNA and work with wildlife veterinarians to determine if the captured bears are involved in an attack.He said any bears captured that were not involved in the attack would be relocated,

No decision has been made about what to do with the bears involved in the attack if they are captured.

Residents are asked to avoid the 4 Mile Subdivision, stay indoors and not look for bears on their own.