Beware of bears near the Boyle Transfer Site.
Athabasca Regional Waste Management Services Commission director Rob Smith said there has been more bear activity than usual at the site.
“The first reportings were around the end of August,” Smith said. “There’s been some bear scat around, and they’ve been to the bins a couple times. They’re getting a little more braver, so they’re moving around a little bit more when the public is more.”
He said that he has handed the issue over to Athabasca Fish and Wildlife.
Fish and Wildlife officer Adam Jalbert said in an email that “Athabasca Fish and Wildlife set live traps for the bears and were able to capture a sow with 2 cubs. These 3 bears were successfully relocated to a more remote location with a suitable bear habitat.”
Smith’s comments came in response to a Facebook post shared on a Boyle community page that showed bears walking near what the poster called the “Boyle Landfill.” The post was later removed.
Smith said the frequency of bear sightings at the site this year has been abnormal and attributed it to “creature habit.”
“It’s been a couple years since they’ve been around,” he said. “But they do, from time to time, come around sites where there’s been food and they want to get at it.”
“I’ve got another landfill in another area that we haven’t had bears all year,” he added. “There was nothing there last year either. It’s just wherever they happen to wander along that they smell it, they come in.”
“We have received more reports of black bears this year than in the past 2 year,” wrote Jalbert. “But it is not unusually high for this time of year.”
Smith said the person who posted the picture does not live around the landfill, although there is a lot of population surrounding it. The Summer Villages of Bondiss and Mewatha Beach are both near the site.
