Be Bear Smart

We are disappointed to hear that the Fish and Wildlife Officers were forced to euthanize the bear that was seen around the Nordegg Recreation Association campground. We are taking this opportunity to remind all of our members and guests that we share this space with the wildlife and we need to make sure that we remove any attractants for bears.

Make sure that you safely dispose of garbage and keep pets safe. Here are a couple of suggestions from our local District Fish and Wildlife Officer regarding keeping ourselves Bear Safe. 

First step, anything with food or scent attractant needs to be stored indoors/shed. If the bears attempt to get into something and are not rewarded there is no motivation for them to come back. Also – if bears are met with a negative experience when coming into conflict with people, they will more likely steer clear of people. The best thing for any wild animal is to remain that way – wild.

If you come into contact with the bears, we encourage you to scare them off from a safe position. An easy way to do this is noise from indoors (bang pots and pans, air horns, yelling, etc.), or a lot of vehicles have key fobs that have an alarm button that would allow you to turn your car alarm on from inside.

The second step – If you see any bears, or notice that they had been by through the night – please let Aaron Archibald know (cell phone # is below), but if it is urgent or you need to get in touch with an Officer to report this sort of incident or a resource related incident please call the Report-A-Poacher hotline @ 1-800-642-3800.

We would like to avoid the bears becoming conditioned and associate humans with a food source because the end result of that scenario is generally unfortunate as we will not move human safety risks.  I am not opposed to setting a trap, and will do so if need be. The outcome of trapping a bear would be decided based on the circumstances under which it was trapped.

Please let me know if you see any bears, and keep up with great attractant management!

Thanks,

Aaron Archibald

District Fish and Wildlife Officer

Office: 403-721-3965

Cell: 403-895-3843

Aaron.Archibald@gov.ab.ca