With the start of bear season in the city, Greater Sudbury Police have set up a separate line for the public to use to report non-emergency bear encounters.
In a release, police say the line is aimed at diverting the flood of calls away from the emergency 911 number.
“In the summer of 2015, the Greater Sudbury Police Service was inundated with over 1,700 calls for service regarding the presence of black bears within our community,” the release said.
“In order to create efficiencies within our communications centre, we have created a new bear information line to assist the general public when dealing with black bears.”
Starting today, calls from the public about bears problems to 911 will be screened by responders, who will determine whether the case requires police to respond immediately.
“Calls that do not meet the threshold for a police response will be forwarded to the GSPS bear information line,” the release said. “This information line will provide our community with alternative strategies on how deal with black bears.”
Members of the public who have a non-emergency encounter with a bear can call the line directly at 705-675-9171, ext. 2021.
The problem of human-bear encounters spiked in 2015, when a late spring led to a poor berry crop in the wild, prompting the bruins to head into residential neighbourhoods in search of food.
The city had planned to require residents to put trash out for pickup no earlier than 5 a.m. to discourage bears from coming into town at night to raise roadside trash. But a public backlash led city council to suspend enforcement of the new bylaw for this year.
With cold conditions lingering into May, early indications are the berry crop could be affected again, with calls to police about bears at the same pace so far in 2016 as they were last year.
The bylaw was one of the recommendations of a bear committee made up of city, police and provincial officials created last year to find answers to the problem.
Police, in particular, have been affected because the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry stopped responding to bear calls several years ago, leaving police as the only responders.
“The Greater Sudbury Police Service is committed to working in collaboration with our community partners regarding this issue,” the police release said.
“We would to thank the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and the City of Greater Sudbury for their continued dedication in helping us determine the appropriate strategies for dealing with bears.”
