Mankind has been dealing with forest fires and wild beasts since we got up off all fours a millennia ago but has the passage of time really taught us much? Listen to the news and you’ll hear about devastating wildfires around the globe this summer. Moscow recording the highesttemperature reading in 140 years of weather records, vast swaths of Canada and the U.S.A. currently burning and California dreading the soon to come Santa Ana winds that fuel so many devastating fires, yet people still don’t get it.
Up to 70 per cent of all forest fires are caused by human activity and most don’t need to happen in the first place. Campfire bans are in place for a reason, yet campers seem oblivious; people throwing cigarettes from cars and the stupidity goes on and on. I guess it really comes back to the simple adage that some people are truly wise and some are otherwise. You only need to be affected by a wildfire once to change your ways. If you’re dealing fire, think about its potential effects. How hard is it?
As summer nights cool and fall comes, our senses seem to shift away from the smoky hot days of summer and like many other creatures we start to gather our fuel and food for the long winter ahead. For millions of years man has been dealing with one creature’s annual forage for survival, yet it seems we’re once again oblivious to how we should act after eons of interaction.
There are between 120,000 and 160,000 black bears in the forests of B.C., and each one needs to eat up to 20,000 calories per day in the fall season just to survive winter hibernation. Bears know food and how to get it. If you live in bear country as most of us do, why not give these majestic beasts a fighting chance at survival. A half eaten Footlong from Subway left in the back of your work truck is a proverbial bullet in the head to a hungry bear.
If it smells like food then bears will try to eat it and if it’s associated with humans the odds are that bear will become habituated to human waste, harass homeowners and end up getting shot. Once again how hard is it people? Freeze stinky garbage like seafood and other meat wastes, go to the transfer site or landfill more often, clean up your fruit trees and empty your bird feeders. Bears don’t like garbage but if you offer it, they’ll eat it and potentially end up dead.
In the end it’s really our fault as bears don’t create the garbage, we do.
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