WildSafeBC, the successor to the very successful provincial Bear Aware program, has turned to the use of social media to help in its efforts to reduce human-wildlife conflict throughout the province.
“When we were ‘Bear Aware’ and our focus was solely on black bears and grizzlies, we were busy,” Provincial Coordinator Frank Ritcey said in a statement. “But now that we are dealing with all forms of human-wildlife conflict, we’re incredibly busy. Because of that increase we needed to find a way to expand our messaging beyond the standard face-to-face educational processes that we used to employ.”
Facebook pages have been created for the 20 plus communities where WildSafeBC coordinators are based. One primary page has been established for the whole of the province (www.facebook.com/wildsafebc).
“The beauty of these pages is that they not only allow us to provide information to the public, but it also gives the public a chance to tell us about their concerns,” he said.
Coupled with their mapping system (www.wildsafebc.com/warp) that provides an overview of conflicts throughout the province, the addition of Facebook will help round out the program’s digital presence.
“I am hopeful that everyone in the community ‘likes’ our local Facebook page,” said Sue Davies, the WildSafeBC Community Coordinator for Revelstoke. “By ‘liking’ us, you’ll automatically get any updates I post about current conflicts or items of interest in Revelstoke. As well, if you’d like to share your views on human-wildlife conflict in our area, this’ll be a great place to do that very thing.”
She said you can find the newe Face book page by “logging-in to your Facebook page and search for WildSafeBC Revelstoke.”
For information about managing wildlife attractants, contact Revelstoke WildSafeBC at 250-837-8624 or see our websites at www.wildsafebc.com or revelstokebearaware.org. To report bear sightings or conflicts with bears please call the RAPP Line at 1-877-952-7277.
