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Parks Canada wants to remove fruit trees in the Jasper townsite to avoid another bear invasion this summer.
Black bears have been attracted to Jasper’s fruit trees for many years, but last year became “more problematic”, according to a letter Alan Fehr, superintendent of Jasper National Park, wrote to council.
Fehr said two bears had to be killed because they had become food conditioned within the town - and they were not the only offenders.
Beginning in August, at least seven black bears came to the townsite almost daily to access fruit trees, and remained a problem until the fall with two of the bears staying in town until October.
“If we cannot change the behaviour of these bears, they may also have to be killed over the coming year,” said Fehr in his letter.
“Bears that continually visit the townsite lose their fear of humans and become a greater risk to human safety.”
Fehr said Jasper’s fruit trees are the last remaining source of bear food attractants in the townsite as Parks and the municipality have “made tremendous progress” in eliminating bear attractants like closing open garbage dumps and implementing bear-proof garbage containers - all reducing bear mortality over the years.
And Parks Canada has already begun removing fruit trees from all Parks properties and some private residences when the owners have requested it.
In his letter, Fehr said Parks “would like to support and endorse the efforts of the municipality in the removal of all fruit trees from municipal properties” to work towards a “fully Bear Smart” community.
Councillors were hesitant to see all of Jasper’s fruit trees removed.
“I would hate to see a wholesale removal of fruit trees,” said councillor Paul Butler
“We could remove any trees demonstrated to be problematic, if it has had a bear in it.”
Councillor Jenna McGrath agreed. She said: “It would be quite shocking to our community to see all the fruit trees gone.”
Council directed the Operations department to work within their current budget to remove fruit trees known to be problematic and then others found to be.
