Fall in the Alberni Valley comes with beautiful colours and bountiful harvests for locals and visitors alike to enjoy. Unfortunately, it’s not just the people who come out to partake in the fruit harvests that the valley is lucky enough to get.
Between April 1 and Sept. 22, 131 black bear sightings were reported in Port Alberni, according to BearSmart BC consulting executive director Crystal McMillan.
Black bears are mainly attracted by two things; unprotected garbage cans and unpicked fruit.
For the former, the city’s BearSmart liason Guy Cicon said that the city has given out 3,500 BearSmart garbage cans, which make up half of Port Alberni’s inventory. While the BearSmart garbage cans don’t always stop the bears from trying, they do keep them from getting at the garbage inside. The BearSmart garbage cans are provided by the city at no extra cost to any resident who requests one.
While keeping bears out of garbage cans is a vital step in keeping bears away from the city, the fruit trees growing all across it pose a tougher challenge.
“The Alberni Valley was originally a really high producer of fruit so a lot of homeowners planted trees” at the time, said Heather Shobe, founder of the Alberni Valley Gleaning Project, which was founded to reduce the amount of fruit waste in the valley.
With many of the fruit trees now owned by new owners who never planned on having to deal with as much fruit as their properties produce, the Alberni Valley had an overabundance of unused fruit that was going to waste and attracting bears.
The gleaning project is run by a group of volunteers who are contacted by fruit tree owners who don’t have the time or ability to pick the fruit.
The picked fruit is divided into thirds, with the owners taking one third, the volunteers another and the last third going to local charities.
The project, which is in its third year, has been growing rapidly.
“This year has been our busiest year yet,” said Shobe, but added that “we’re still only picking a fraction of the fruit that’s out there and there’s still lots and lots going to waste.”
Despite this, the vounteers have managed to gather 4,000 lbs of fruit this year alone. While McMillan said that the gleaning project hasn’t been around long enough for concrete statistics on bear sighting reductions to emerge, Shobe said she’s “talked to many, many home owners who are thrilled when we come and clean up their trees because they’ve seen bears around. The program is absolutely helping.”
Though the 40 volunteers that have come out this year do what they can with the equipment they have, Shobe said that there’s still a need for more equipment. That includes everything from ladders to their most urgent need: a truck to transport the fruit.
Even lacking equipment, volunteers have picked trees on 34 properties this year. The project mainly focuses on apple, pears and plums, although Shobe said that they’ve picked everything from berries to nuts and even vegetables.
For fruit tree owners who end up with more apples and pears than they can deal with, Arrowvale Farms will be bringing a mobile fruit press into the city on Saturday, Nov. 1. “You can just bring your fruit and it goes through a truck, it gets pasteurized and put into boxes for you for a really reasonable fee. It’s a really easy way to make use of a lot fruit.”
For more information on the Alberni Valley Gleaning Project, contact Heather Shobe at 250-724-2175 or email heather@edentreefarm.ca. To learn more about BearSmart and to request a BearSmart garbage can, contact Christina Brack at 250-723-9200 or email avbearsmart@hotmail.com.
reporter@albernivalleynews.com
