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Too close for comfort

Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 18/01) - Sunday's bear shooting at Fred Henne Park is being blamed on people, rather than the two bears wildlife officials discovered were hungrily roaming throughout the campground.



Mark Galbraith is one of the campers who was warned to keep food locked in coolers at Fred Henne campground. - Dawn Ostrem/NNSL photo

Bears traipsing through Fred Henne campground caused officials to shut part of it down Sunday.

Recreation vehicles lumbered down the narrow park roads from the section known as Loop C, nearest the dump.

Motor homes and campers were forced on the busy roads by park officers and wildlife officers on the hunt for two bears spotted in the area.

Wildlife officers captured and killed a black bear late that night. On Tuesday afternoon they were still searching for the other.

The bear that was killed was first spotted July 12.

"We could hear them in the morning -- the people trying to get rid of the bear," said camper Alexina MacLean. "I heard somebody say, 'Get out of here,' so I thought they were talking to a person."

The bear later came back and trampled over two empty tents in its search for food. That was enough for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development to order the campers out of the area.

"We just moved everyone down to the lower end of the campground," explained park services co-ordinator Gary Tees.

Many campers took the ordeal in stride.

"The only thing is we had a 45-minute wait," said Matt Galbraith of Edmonton, who added he appreciated the concern for safety.

"I went back up there because I forgot a jacket and it was all blocked off."

The senior wildlife officer for RWED said even though campers had to be shuffled last weekend it was not the bears that are causing the problem.

"I think it's a people problem, not a bear problem," said Raymond Bourget.

"This year people have been so careless."

Park attendants and RWED officers have continuously warned people to keep clean camp sites this season.

Officers have killed three bears to date this year, the other two resulting from a fatal attack near Prelude Lake, and removed one from the Dettah area.

"It has actually been quite quiet this year but the problems we have seen have been so severe," Bourget said.

He added that people camping at Fred Henne long-term are not necessarily messier campers, but the longer people stay the more food and garbage they accumulate.

"People who are trying to find housing are staying long-term so that contributes to it," he said. "Other than that, I really don't know, there just seems to be a lot of complacency."

MacLean and fellow camper Raymond Bouvier are two of those long-term campers who expected to come to Yellowknife from Calgary and find a place to rent.

Now, more than ever, they say they would like to leave if they could.

"It does worry me, of course, when you have to go to the washroom and shower," MacLean said.

"We love it; camping, but with the bears, I don't know ... our intention was to find a place to live."