Rob Murray: Nick de Ruyter from Bow Valley WildSmart is joining me on the show. Has it been a busy summer for you? It seems like there’s a lot of people in and around the Bow Valley these days.

Nick de Ruyter: It has certainly been busy. There’s lots of people, lots of visitors, people who normally would be probably going overseas during summer vacation are staying closer to home and heading to Kananaskis Country and the Bow Valley. So we’ve seen lots of people and we’ve been seeing lots of bears. When you mix those two, there’s a potential for some of those negative encounters.

RM: We haven’t seen high profile stories about that yet, but we are heading into the season where those encounters are more possible, aren’t we?

NDR: We are in berry season right now, which is kind of one of the more busy times for bear encounters. They’re very hungry and looking to fill up their bellies for the winter hibernation, and because they’re so focused on eating they have their heads down and the bears aren’t paying attention to what’s going on around them. So there’s much higher chance of an encounter with a bear.

RM: Are you seeing a lot of the people on the trails, or maybe people who are typically not those who come out to the mountains and recreate in this way?

NDR: We’re definitely seeing lots of new visitors to the area. Lots of these new visitors have no idea. They just don’t know necessarily the best tricks of the trade, so to speak, to be safe while you’re out recreating. We’re seeing people not prepared for hikes. They’re wearing flip flops, they’re not bringing water or food. We’re seeing people not carrying bear spray. We’re seeing people leaving garbage out on the trail, thinking that there’s going to be people cleaning up after them. Those are attractants for bears and other wildlife. And we really don’t want any wildlife to access garbage or human food because it’s a slippery slope – once they get a taste they will keep coming back for more. And it’s almost always the wildlife that pays the price by getting relocated or destroyed. So we want to really do our part and it’s our responsibility as users of the landscape to clean up after ourselves, be responsible, and not set any wildlife up for potential.

RM: I’ve seen a lot of posts on social media, a lot of conversation about people finding garbage along trails within Alberta Parks. Ultimately, people need to be responsible for themselves, don’t they?

NDR: Totally. If garbage bins are full and overflowing, those need to be removed by the people that are running those parks, but certainly garbage out on the trails, people need to be just picking up after themselves. Even at campgrounds, picnic areas, day use areas. We might have windy days, but that doesn’t mean you can’t walk an extra five metres and pick up your garbage that was blown away by the wind. People really need to do their part and take responsibility for their own actions and their own garbage.

RM: What are some other sort of general messaging about trying to avoid bear counters that you would give to people?

NDR: It’s berry season and the bears will not be paying attention. Some of the key things to do would be making noise, and the human voice is the best. When I’m out, I’ll just yell “Eh oh!” or something like that, just to alert them of your presence, because most of the encounters that happened during berry season are surprise encounters. So by making noise, we hopefully won’t surprise any wildlife.

Other very important things are traveling in groups. Once you’re in a group of four people or more, it greatly reduces the chance of an encounter with a bear.

Other things like being aware of your surroundings. I still see a lot of people hiking trails, running, and biking with earbuds on not able to hear what’s going on around them. People should not be wearing earbuds. You need to be able to be aware of what’s going on around you and have some good situational awareness because those berry bushes like to grow in open sunlight, along trails, roads, campgrounds, in recreation areas, and that’s where we are all having our fun. It’s so easy to sneak up on a bear, and if you’re wearing earbuds you won’t hear what’s going on around you.

It might be helpful to keep your eye out for scat as well. During berry season, bear scat looks like strawberry jam. It’s quite bright and red and very liquidy. If you see that on the trail there’s probably a bear nearby eating berries.

Keeping dogs on a leash is another huge thing. Over the last two months it’s unbelievable how many off-leash dogs there have been right around town, in parks, and on different trails. That’s another added danger for you, for your dog, and for the wildlife. Especially during berry season, these bears need these calories. They need to eat, and we don’t want to disrupt them. An off-leash dogs will disrupt them. In Minnewanka, for example, they have their seasonal trail restrictions. You have to have a minimum of four people in your group. You have to have bear spray with you. Dogs are not allowed, even on leash. It’s one thing to consider if you’re out hiking and you’ve got, let’s say, your kids with you, you’ve got bear spray, you’ve got your dog. It might be too much to handle. Consider leaving your dog at home, because you need to be able to have your two hands free to use bear spray if you need it.

RM: Any tips for people using bear spray? I mean, to me, bear spray is kind of like a fire extinguisher. I think I’d know how to use it when the situation came up, but I’ve never actually fired it before.

NDR: It’s pretty straightforward, but it is good to have tried it. That’s why we do all our training sessions with inert bear spray, so if you get it on yourself there’s no harmful effects. On our website we have a really great video on how to use bear spray. It’s funny, it’s educational, it’s subtitled in nine different languages. The key things with the bear spray is you want to carry it on your person, easily accessible in two to three seconds because those surprising counters can happen that quickly. So not in your backpack. And just being prepared to use it as another key thing. I see lots of people carrying it, but I don’t think they’re mentally prepared to use it. And during berry season there’s a higher likelihood that you’ll have a bear encounter. Practice at home. Don’t actually take the clip off, but just practice your quick draw and just pretend – what am I going to do if I run into a bear around this corner coming up?

RM: Let’s say you do run into a bear on the trail or wherever you happen to be. What’s the best thing to do?

NDR: I like to remember three simple words – stop, talk, and walk.

Let’s say there’s a blind corner and all of a sudden there’s a bear on the trail in front of us. The first thing we want to do is we stop. We never run away. Pull our bear spray out and have it ready. We’ve got kids. We gather our group together. If you’ve got a dog with you on leash, like keep that dog close.

Then we talk to the bear in a nice calm voice, just to let it know that we’re a human, we’re nice and calm, and we’re going to back away slowly. We might want to talk to the group and say, okay guys, let’s back away slowly. We want to avoid eye contact and start moving away.

The third word is walk. Back away slowly. We never turn our back on a bear or other wildlife and we just leave the area back the way we came.

If that bear charges or we feel our life’s in danger, or it gets within the usable range of your bear spray, which is normally about five meters (about the length of a car), use that bear spray. Give a good one to two second spray in the bear’s face and that’ll give you time to get away and leave the area.

So stop talk, walk, and stay calm. And never run.

RM: You have other great resources on your website as well?

NDR: So every Friday we put out a bear report. There’s a link to it on our Facebook page, and you can subscribe and get it emailed to you every Friday afternoon. It has information about what the wildlife are up to. What are they eating? Where are they? Where are the warnings and closures? That kind of thing. We’ve also got a trail warnings and closures. It’s good to know before you go.

RM: There’s been a lot of messaging over the last few years for locals about removing berry bushes and fruit bearing trees from yards. Has there been a big uptake on that? Is there still more work to be done?

NDR: Certainly there’s more work to be done. There have been quite a lot of buffaloberry bushes removed around the town, but there certainly still are berry bushes, especially in those neighborhoods that back onto the green spaces on both sides of the Valley. We really do ask people if they can remove any of those kinds of attractants that could attract bears and other wildlife and get them into trouble. Things like fruit trees, apple trees, mountain ash, even things like greasy barbecues, garbage, and pet food. We want to make sure we don’t have any of those things in our backyards because it’s almost always the wildlife that pays a price. Once they get a taste of that food they’ll probably keep coming back and get into trouble, and then they’ll likely get relocated or destroyed. With fruit tree season coming up in August and September, it’s just a good idea to get rid of those berry bushes, remove those fruit bearing trees, or at a minimum pick the fruit before it’s ripe, before a bear or other wildlife gets into trouble in your backyard.

RM: WildSmart has fruit picking tools and some other handy devices that people can borrow. With COVID, are you still open for that?

NDR: I certainly am. I will happily disinfect that equipment in between uses. We have pruning shears and those telescopic fruit pickers.

While we’re on that topic, I’ll just mention that the Town of Canmore is doing their volunteer fruit tree removal program again this year if you’re in one of the priority neighborhoods, you can get up to $300 back if you use a certified arborist or tree removal service.

Filed under: Bow Valley WildSmart, Canmore, Kananaskis, Wildlife