In almost any Summerland neighbourhood, garbage containers are set out by the road the evening before the garbage is collected.
It’s an easy and convenient practice, and it can save a bit of time in the morning, when the garbage trucks are making their rounds.
But this practice is also one of the factors contributing to the number of bear encounters in Summerland.
Our leftover food scraps, which we think of as garbage, are appealing to hungry bears, especially at this time of year as they search for food for the winter.
In the late summer and fall, bears can eat as much as 20,000 calories a day as they fatten up for winter.
Finding enough calories to meet this need is an ongoing challenge, and bears will seek out any easily available sources of food they can find.
This means the row of garbage cans left at the curb overnight is a huge buffet spread for bears.
Last year, there were numerous calls to conservation officers about wildlife, including 73 calls about black bears in Summerland.
This number might be lower than the actual numbers, as some sightings may have been unreported.
Of these 73 calls about bears, 28 were because of garbage in the vicinity.
Other encounters with bears were because of ripe fruit or berries on the ground or on the trees.
When bears show up in a populated area, there is the potential for a dangerous encounter.
Bears, no matter how cute they may seem, are wild animals.
Once bears or other wild animals lose their fear of people, and once they associate people with an easy source of food, problems will arise.
In past years, some bears have been trapped and then transported to unpopulated areas. At other times, the bears have been killed.
While a change in our behaviour will not eliminate all bear encounters, it could reduce the number of encounters.
And that is good for people and bears alike.