By Jaime Frederick, Local Journalism Initiative/ Photo by Pierre Kaufmann

The BC Conservation Officer Service (COS) announced in a Facebook post on Friday (August 14), that they have killed a second grizzly bear in Nelson. This bear is the mother of the yearling grizzly killed by the COS in the Nelson area on Wednesday, as well as two other yearlings that they say have been “captured and released at an undisclosed location where they can continue to be monitored.”

The post stated that the sow, named “Nell” by some in the community, was killed to “ensure public safety,” adding that she had “exhibited food-conditioned behaviour and a significant loss of fear of people, including repeatedly accessing residential properties and non-natural food sources such as fruit trees and barbecues, and regularly remaining in close proximity to people.”

The statement also says that “the BCCOS and the BC Wildlife Branch have monitored this sow and her offspring for several years and [have] worked proactively with the community to reduce human-wildlife conflicts through attractant management.”

The sow grizzly was previously relocated, in 2023, along with two offspring. At that time, the sow returned to the Nelson area several days later. 

Katie Graves of the Ursa Project, a bear awareness and advocacy group based in Nelson, said that she is not aware of the mother or cubs ever exhibiting aggressive behaviour toward humans.

“The mom has been a great mom,” said Graves. “After she was relocated with the two cubs in 2023, she came back to Nelson. She stayed in Nelson, in the Fort Sheppard Uphill area, for about two and a half months before she went to go den. She got into someone’s open compost–I mean, that’s the worst thing she did. She’s very good at knowing how to coexist with people. And teaching her kids to do the same thing, which is really making our grizzly population better for it, right?”

Other people who are familiar with the bears have had similar experiences. Pierre Kaufmann, who has lived south of Nelson near Cottonwood Lake since 2013, said at a rally on Thursday in support of the bears that he has seen the grizzly sow on his property over many years, beginning when she herself was a cub. He claims she had never been a problem.

“That mom and her cubs, we witnessed her as a cub on our property [as she was] growing up,” said Kaufmann. “And we observed her mom and other grizzlies… But they have never shown any signs of aggression. They co-existed. She’s very smart, never gone near any garbage or recycling. There were times when we’d left our recycling out–no interest in it. Definitely showed no signs of being garbage bears.” 

The COS said in its statement that “given the bear’s extensive food-conditioning and increasing comfort in residential areas, a second relocation was not considered a viable management option by the BC Wildlife Branch.”

They added that they are aware that news of the killing of the grizzlies will be “upsetting for many people.” 

“The dispatching of any bear is an outcome that conservation officers, wildlife biologists, community partners, and residents work hard to prevent, and these decisions are never made lightly,” they said, noting that the decisions to kill the bears were made in consultation with wildlife biologists from the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.

The need for the public to better manage wildlife attractants is highlighted by all parties, including both bear advocacy groups and the COS.  

“Human-wildlife conflict is a shared responsibility of the government, residents and our visitors, said the COS in their statement. “Across British Columbia, unsecured attractants remain a primary driver of bear conflicts and the subsequent dispatch of bears. Securing attractants such as garbage, fruit and other food sources is the most effective way to help keep both people and bears safe.”

Katie Graves said the same thing after the yearling bear was killed on Wednesday, lamenting the decision to kill the bears and noting that property owners in the area are largely responsible for their deaths.

“You know, this is a good mom, and she’s shown us that she’s a good mom,” said Graves. “And if we would not put our garbage outside and [would] clean our barbeques, you know, some very simple little things, then she wouldn’t have to lose her [cub]…. You know, they’re not, they’re not becoming a public safety issue. You know, they’re not attacking people. They’re not. They’re good bears.”

She went on to criticize the COS, suggesting that they could be much more proactive in preventing “bear conflicts” by doing more to educate property owners and enforce laws intended to prevent situations like this one before they happen.

“The conservation officers actually have a lot of powers that are used in other places in BC, but our officers for some reason are not using,” she said. “They have the ability to fine people for not cleaning their barbeque or for leaving their garbage out. They do not do that here. They’ve issued some fines up in the Slocan Valley for people who weren’t electric fencing their chickens, for instance, but they don’t use their powers like that here for some reason. They don’t fine, they don’t haze the bears, which they certainly should be. And they do it in plenty of other places where it works very effectively.”

Kootenay Co-op Radio also reached out to both the City of Nelson and the Regional District of Central Kootenay regarding their waste management programs and bylaw enforcement. In an email, Stephanie Delnea, communications coordinator with the City of Nelson, said, “Preventing these situations requires all of us to work together. Simple actions such as picking fruit, securing garbage and removing attractants can make a significant difference in keeping bears wild and reducing risks to both animals and people.”

She noted that the city has installed bear-resistant garbage bins and removed fruit trees from city-owned land, among other initiatives to reduce food waste and wildlife attractants. Delnea also said that under the city’s waste management bylaw, “garbage and other attractants must be secured from wildlife, and garbage may only be put out for collection on the morning of pickup. Bylaw Services is working to ensure these requirements are being followed and continues to address unsecured garbage, unmanaged compost and other wildlife attractants when necessary.”

Also in an email, Uli Wolf, general manager of environmental services for the RDCK, said: “To help mitigate wildlife encounters, the RDCK is one of several funding partners supporting WildSafeBC’s public education initiatives. WildSafeBC develops and delivers its own educational content, aimed at reducing human-wildlife conflicts through responsible attractant management.”

BC Conservation Officer Service Grizzly bear nelson