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POLITICS
INDEX
The four political candidates hoping to get your vote for MP tell you their plans to save the environment. Story page 6
News Opinion Community
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
ARTS 2 10 9
East Sooke resident Guy Rimmer builds castles, chairs and diorama masterpieces with Lego. Story page 23
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BEAR COMPLAINT CALLS HIT RECORD Bruins find feast in region due to complacent homeowners unwilling to be ‘bear-aware’ Octavian Lacatusu Sooke News Mirror
With a record number of bear-related calls to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service this month, Sooke residents are a little spooked and on the defensive, but if they feel they’ve got it bad, Yogi’s got it a lot worse. Let’s put it this way: if a bear becomes habituated to an urban environment due to easy access to garbage or human-sourced food, the bear is almost always guaranteed a sad and pointless death: either due to starvation, or by the hands of a less-than-riveted conservation officer who has no other choice but to put the bear down due to its imminent danger to the public. Still, 50 calls since Sept. 1 shows otherwise, so are there more bears out there? “Not necessarily,” said Debbie
Read, coordinator of Wild Wise Sooke, adding 300 to 500 bear calls is common in Sooke. What hasn’t been so common was the hot and dry summer, which, as Read said, has disrupted the rhythm of how bears feed themselves. “We had a very warm summer, so berries and skunk cabbages ripened early this year, which gave them [the bears] plenty of food up in the hills, but when everything started drying up and that food source was depleted, then they started coming down here,” she said. And since fruit trees are still ripening and berries are plentiful in town, Sooke has become an interesting food hot spot. If you add some garbage, which serves as a huge attractant for bears, then you got yourself an all-star bear buffet. SEE BEARS • PAGE 33
Judy Burgess photo
This black bear was found walking through a yard above Saseenos last week. The B.C. Conservation Officer Service has received more than 50 bear calls so far this month from Sooke. Photographer Judy Burgess safely snapped the picture through a dining room window.
Midgets have big plans for season
Festival brings apple treats to garden
The Sooke Thunderbirds are hoping to one better their 2015-15 season by bringing home a provincial championship. Head coach Kevin Berger says all the pieces are in place for the Midget A club to repeat as Island champions and take the next step to the B.C. crown. It’ll just take a little luck and perseverance. Story page 31
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Fruit and the tastes of fall will be front and centre Sunday (Sept. 27) for the second annual Apple Fest at Sunriver Community Gardens. The event will be part celebration, part education about apples, says organizer Phoebe Dunbar. “It’s a harvest celebration,” says Dunbar. “It’s a celebration of the orchard.” Story page 36
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