Bears, everywhere, beware, look out, look out. Bears, they don’t care who they scare, you better beware.
The above lyrics from The Fastest Group Alive’s “The Bears” in 1966 could be a theme song for our valley at the moment.
Not only are many North American bear experts in Banff for a Parks Canada and Canadian Pacific symposium during which, we hope, some common sense solution to train-related bear deaths can be created, but bears continue to be in the news.
On Thursday (Sept. 29) the bear experts will be out there, at the tracks, as part of a living laboratory, to investigate initiatives such as vegetation management, wayside warning systems, gates, fencing and on-track structures to discourage bears from using the tracks.
With any luck, Canmorite Brad Blois’ idea for a variable velocity warning trajectory safety system on the front of trains will get some traction. Blois and a crew are working on a system which would launch neon glow-in-the-dark balls as a locomotive advances, then fire rubber balls as it closes to frighten animals or alert people walking on the tracks.
Bears are of particular interest in these parts, but there’s no escaping the fact that citizens in our valley and across Canada, regrettably, have also been killed in rail-related incidents, for whatever reason.
Being that in recent years nothing more technologically advanced than repairs to doors on grain hopper cars has been attempted, we believe there is plenty of room for forward motion of some sort.
Then there is the grizzly incident at Lake Louise where a collared six-year-old male bear treed a veteran guide/mountaineer and his client (see front page).
This incident features interesting aspects; both good and bad.
Typically, and clearly this is the backcountry version of an urban myth, it is generally thought that grizzly bears won’t climb trees after you. The fact that a grizzly climbed 18 metres up a tree after two men simply reinforces the fact the only predictable thing about bears is they’re unpredictable.
We’d say it also reinforces the need for people in the backcountry to carry bear spray; as the guide has vowed to do in future.
What we at RMO find somewhat alarming is that the bear in question, a collared male that Parks staff were keeping tabs on, had other encounters with people this summer. It might have been best to post warnings.
We feel it would be better safe than sorry.
We’re no experts, and the bear may well have moved on, but it would be difficult to say it couldn’t return at any time. We doubt bears are monitored 24/7.
Finally, for those who believe news stories concerning bears are harmful to tourism – in the past, and again recently, RMO staff have been told by people in Banff and the national park that it is the case – we must point out we don’t print bear stories to sell papers or to sensationalize incidents or harm tourism in this valley.
We believe news reports concerning bears are more a means of letting the public know that bears are out there and that care needs to be taken in regard to them.
In other words, forewarned is forearmed.
In the end, we suggest stories of closures and train-related deaths are nothing compared to the certain national and international media storm which would occur should a bear kill someone in an area where it was known to roam; but where no warnings were posted.
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