Time for Prince George to get bear smart?
Time for Prince George to get bear smart?
And some mysteries solved
The Citizen: Council to consider adding a city staffer to reach Bear Smart status
There are several recommendations in there, including the creation of the new staff position, the addition of bear-proof garbage cans in public spaces and ameding bylaws to allow for electric fences (which I didn’t know we weren’t allowed?)
It’s probably a good idea for Prince George to try to get Bear Smart status, otherwise we’re likely to be the “deadliest city for black bears” for the forseeable future but we should also go into with eyes wide open: Port Moody achieved Bear Smart status earlier this year and it took them two decades to get there:
The Bear Smart Community Program was initiated by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Union of B.C. Municipalities and the B.C. Conservation Foundation to reduce human-bear conflicts by taking aims at the root causes.
Julie Pavey-Tomlinson, Port Moody's general manager of community services, said when she started working at the city in the late 1990s, open garbage cans in parks and attractants could be found everywhere.
An internal memo she wrote led to the city taking the first in a long list of preventive steps to start making Port Moody a more bear-friendly community.
It’s paid off, though: there hasn’t been a single bear killed there since 2021.
Mysteries solved
Yesterday, we had the question of what these doodles are in the Civic Plaza:
Colin Carson of Tourism Prince George thinks he has the answer:
I was told that the "doodles" on the bricks in the plaza were done by a summer camp at Two Rivers. I was told when the City was going to put the wood up (that is now removed), they asked the Two Rivers staff if their summer camp kids wanted to paint some bricks before the work was done.
Not entirely sure that this is 100% accurate, but it's the story I was told by some Civic Centre staff.
And now that he shares that, I think it might be true.
And Owen writes back with an answer to his own question about why we have a Cameron Street Bridge, but no Cameron Street:
These maps are out of a book called ‘History of Prince George’ by Rev Runnalls. The book was printed in 1943, I believe. I am unsure if the maps depicted here were reflecting the layout at that exact time, but as you can see the area between the Crescents and Central street used to look quite a bit different back then. And, you will notice a Cameron Street which appears to connect directly to the bridge. Just something kinda interesting to look at!
Although there is no date referenced on the individual maps, most of the book seems to focus on 1910-1920, so that would be my best guess. I read a few pages before and after each map to see if the date was discussed, but didn't see anything.
I do like looking at old maps. Send them my way!
And Mandi writes for anyone interested in this sort of thing:
UNBC Library has an air photo collection covering 1936-1959 that I've used to check out a previous road running parallel north of McGill Cres - info here: https://libguides.unbc.ca/airphotos/bc Photos from 1960-present are available from the BC Gov as well: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/data/geographic-data-services/digital-imagery/air-photos And there's also a few editions of PG street names books that include historical info: https://catalogue.pgpl.ca/client/en_US/default/search/results/?qu=prince+george+street+names+
News roundup”
Oh, and it looks like we have a provincial government.
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"The report also urges the gradual introduction of bear-resistant receptacles in public spaces, including parks and bus stops."
This is the thing that I have noticed around PG - we have some bear-resistant bins around town, but far too many of those old, open top bins. I feel the city should be leading by example, rather than "do as I say, not as I do" when it comes to improving bear and resident safety through attractant management.
It's also kind of ridiculous (IMHO) that it is 2024 and PG is finally looking into becoming a Bear Smart community. As it is, there are only 12 in the province and I believe all of them are Kamloops and southwards. Kamloops became a Bear Smart community in 2009, as the very first one in the province. I guess the time lag reflects the northern culture of being behind the times? I might be a bit unfair in my criticism but boy, it makes me angry as a rural resident that we cannot get this one thing right.
I’m not a PG resident but often visit family there, and yeah, PG needs to do something. When we were there over the summer, literally every day we’d hear bear bangers going off, bears climbing fruit trees, bears eating out of garbage bins. There were no kids out as everyone was scared of bear run-ins. Reducing the food/attractants seems to be an obvious, and easy, step. Yeah, it’s a big city with a lot of forest integration, bears are going to be there, but we don’t have to make it worse (mostly for the bears who usually end up dead) by having easy food sources everywhere.