EDITOR,
Some of us on Kintyre Drive, near Jura Cresent, woke up on Friday to see a bear trap set up on the street. In fact, right beside the driveway of one neighbour, and beside the yard fence of another with two young children. No one had been notified and of the three neighbours I chatted with, none of us had noticed or reported a problem bear. There is/was a bear who had his regular morning jaunt from the forest bench along Mashiter Creek and through my neighbour's yard, they knew him as their "regular morning bear" and joked that he should be carrying a cup of coffee while ambling about. He/she, as far as we knew, never caused problems, did not have easy food access (fruit, garbage, etc.) so the bear trap came to us as a surprise. We do hope the poor bear that was caught at Monday at 3 a.m., was relocated and not killed due to budget cuts.
Conservation officers, take note, next time you set up a trap, then let those around the trap know what is going on, especially if it is directly in front of someone's house.
To whoever reported the bear, I hope there was a seriously valid reason to report a bear. Kintyre Drive is on a greenbelt along Mashiter Creek - hence a wildlife corridor. In fact, many of us in Squamish do live surrounded by forest and Crown land and yes, critters will wander through our neighbourhoods. And wander is what most of them do, with the occasional "bad apple" that will cause problems (no different than people). I hope we are not starting to treat any wildlife with teeth and claws with immediate elimination and death sentence.
Martine Dubuc
Garibaldi Highlands
