It’s now even easier for Elk Valley residents to be bear aware. The new Elk Valley Bear Aware blog www.elkvalleybearaware.wordpress.com will allow residents to easily share information about bear sightings near their home and on trails.
Followers of the linked Elk Valley Bear Aware Facebook page www.facebook.com/elkvalleybearaware and @Evbearaware Twitter feed, will receive automatic alerts whenever a sighting is reported.
The blog features facts about bears and useful information about bear-proofing your home and what to do if you encounter a bear. You can also see photos of local bears and submit your own shots.
Fernie Bear Aware coordinator Kathy Murray hopes regular updates about sightings will enable residents to be aware of how many bears pass through the area. She said: “We live in bear country and we all have to work together to ensure bears aren’t attracted into our communities, where they may get conditioned to human food sources and become dangerously bold in their efforts to get to them. “That’s why it’s important to ensure that garbage is kept inside, bird feeders are removed in summer, ripe fruit is picked and compost is kept carefully to keep it odor free.”
Elk Valley Bear Aware coordinator Jutta Kolhi added: “The blog is also a great way to remind hikers and bikers that bears are frequently seen on the most popular trails so they need to make noise to avoid startling any bears that may be nearby.”
The blog has been donated to Bear Aware by Rebecca Edwards at Mountain Words blog services www.mountainwords.wordpress.com
Elk Valley Bear Aware website is at www.elkvalleybearaware.wordpress.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/elkvalleybearaware
Twitter: @evbearaware
Attached is a photo of a brown colored black bear with the most beautiful coat feeding on natural bear food who regularly travels through a rural property in Fernie. This photo, and others like it, can be seen on the new Elk Valley Bear Aware blog- www.elkvalleybearaware.wordpress.com
Photo courtesy of Marcie Welsh
