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Fed up with bison Animals cause property damage in Fort Liard
Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, July 18, 2013
ACHO DENE KOE/FORT LIARD
Some Fort Liard residents and officials from the hamlet are concerned about the damage bison are causing and the dangers the animals pose to humans.
John McKee, the hamlet of Fort Liard's senior administrative officer, points to damage to the fence surrounding the community's baseball diamond caused by bison. The hamlet has to replace portions of the fence once a year due to bison. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo
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John McKee, the hamlet's senior administrative officer, gave the Deh Cho Drum a tour around Fort Liard on July 10, highlighting the damage the bison have done.
The day before, there was a herd of approximately 50 bison in a residential subdivision on the south edge of the hamlet, said McKee.
McKee pointed to the slide in the children's playground in the subdivision that was bent into an unusable shape last fall after a bison used it to scratch its back. Hoof prints in the sand and gravel around the playground point to the more recent visit.
"If the ground is soft, their hoof prints are significant," he said.
McKee is concerned that someday it will be a resident who will be seriously hurt by a bison, instead of an inanimate object.
Driving back from the subdivision into the hamlet on the community's access road, McKee passed the herd in question that has multiple calves in tow.
Bison are a problem in the community, particularly twice a year in the spring and fall, when the herds migrate, he said. In the spring and summer, when the calves are young, the bison are even more protective and jumpy, said McKee.
"When they've got their young, it makes me more apprehensive," he said.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) is doing nothing to keep bison out of the hamlet, said McKee. When a herd starts to come down the hill into the community, the department should station someone on the access road to turn them around using noise makers, he said. Once the bison are in the valley in the hamlet, they disperse and find places to eat.
One of the places favoured by the bison is the community's ball diamond. The hamlet has to replace portions of the chain link fence surrounding the field on an annual basis due to damage caused by bison. The bison break through the fence to get to the grass on the field.
"A fence doesn't stop them," McKee said.
Property destroyed by bison
McKee stops at multiple houses where bison have walked through yards and snapped pine trees at their bases as early as that morning. One of those damaged was an 18-year-old tree in his front yard.
"Their mere size for a yard just does damage," he said.
"They literally destroy yards."
Bison also make it difficult to grow gardens, something the territorial government has been trying to promote, he said.
"They'll just come in and walk right through them."
Bison, although worse during the migrations, are a constant problem in the hamlet, said McKee.
"We've been complaining about it for years."
John Gonet, a resident, is also concerned about the danger bison pose to humans.
"That's all that is, is an accident waiting to happen," he said.
It will only be after someone is seriously injured by a bison that something will be done about them, said Gonet.
"It will happen. It's only a matter of time."
Fined for shooting bison
Gonet has had plenty of experience with bison. Approximately three years ago, he was fined $2,000 for discharging a firearm in the hamlet and had his unregistered guns seized and destroyed after he shot a large bison in his yard he thought was about to damage his jet boat.
On July 10, Gonet pulled out his cellphone to show a picture he took of another large bison that was in his yard that morning. They destroy gardens and trees and damage vehicles by rubbing up against them and licking salt off of them in the winter, he said.
Gonet, who wanted to take his dogs for a run to the ball diamond on July 14, said he couldn't because there were three bison there.
"They're all over town," he said.
Gonet questioned who else the hamlet and residents can talk to after years of writing petitions, and talking to the Nahendeh MLA and ENR produced few results.
ENR staff do occasionally try to get the bison out of the hamlet, but it is a lot for them to do, he said.
Floyd Bertrand, ENR's manager of wildlife in Fort Liard, said he does herd bison out of the community as soon as he sees them. Bertrand uses noise makers for most of the bison and sometimes deploys rubber buckshot on the hind ends of the more stubborn bulls.
"I have been doing my best to haze these bison out," he said.
If residents see bison in the community or in their yard, they should phone the ENR office. Even if he's not working, Bertrand said he will go and make every effort to herd them out.
So far this summer, Bertrand said he's only received two calls, both in June, from residents about bison. Bertrand cautions that residents shouldn't interfere when he is herding bison. People get curious and sometimes they get in the path the bison are being herded in, he said.
When they migrate, the herds seem to follow the same route, he said.
The main herd follows the truck bypass road towards the airport and the Petitot River, but some do split off and go into the hamlet. Bertrand said he can't get every bison. They are smart animals and seem to know to come into the hamlet at night and leave before 7 a.m., he said.
As of July 15, the most recent herd to enter the hamlet was leaving the area, he said.
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