Everyone makes mistakes.
It seems like such an odiously obvious statement to make. It comes across as a cliché, but it is important for Bow Valley residents to keep that idea centred in their thoughts when it comes to the most important natural resource we have – wildlife.
Everyone makes mistakes.
But it is not making mistakes that gets us into trouble, it is when we don’t learn from them that we undermine ourselves and doom future generations to repeat them.
We have learned so much and come so far as a valley when it comes to living with wildlife. There is even a documentary film about it to celebrate our successes.
Nothing demonstrates that more than how we handle garbage in Canmore and Banff – there is no curbside garbage pickup or recycling – instead we as communities have learned that securing food waste reduces wildlife conflicts. We have applied that lesson to our infrastructure and municipal services – we have learned from our mistakes.
The cost of learning about garbage and grizzlies was high, with several bear attacks in the summer of 1980, and should never be forgotten.
As a society, we spend our time pointing fingers at others, criticizing their behaviours, decisions and focusing on their mistakes, instead of looking at ourselves and how we can all improve by learning from them. We all make this mistake of focusing too hard on who to blame, on whose actions are the problem. The question should become, how do we make it better as a result?
Right now the Bow Valley has a bear in it that needs us as the humans who also live here to not make a mistake. Bear 148 still roams these hills because our wildlife managers are trying to work together to keep her alive. As a reproductive female of a threatened species – she is very important (and could already have a few buns in the oven).
When it comes to bear 148, there is a real opportunity to move past a focus on mistakes, and instead create soltuions to problems. A real problem is the fact this bear crosses jurisdictional boundaries that involves three different governement wildlife management agencies – Parks Canada, Alberta Parks and Fish and Wildlife. That creates a fragmented approach to her management, with differing views on her behaviour.
It would have been a mistake to kill bear 148, instead of relocating her, as officials eventually decided to do. There is a lot of gratitude in the valley right now about that decision and a desire to do more to ensure she stays alive. The need for closures is clearly a reality if she travels back toward populated areas of Canmore, where there is a real concern for public safety.
Staying out of areas that are closed for the purposes of wildlife management is a real problem in Canmore. Look toward your nearest wildlife corridor where human use is rampant (94 per cent), and understand the reality wildlife officials are weighing in their decisions.
Human activity is displacing wildlife in the very places we have set aside as a community to protect. Why, then are we surprised that closures are ignored and wildlife officials shy away from using them?
The mistake we make, and it is easy to do, is to lose sight of how the situation can be improved becasue we are focused on who is to blame. Instead of online petitions to save the bear, maybe we should have one to respect places that are closed to human use instead, because that is the real lesson we haven’t learned yet and need to.
