Be Bear Smart – Time to Prune Fruit Trees
By Contributor
Fruit trees are wonderful, aren’t they? Especially during these times of high food costs, we like
to be able to pick our own fruit. While we enjoy our gardening efforts, we must also be Bear
Smart. Wise fruit tree management is critical for keeping bears wild by stopping them from
foraging in town.
During the fall, bears must eat 10,000 to 20,000 calories daily to prepare for winter. As much as
we enjoy seeing them gorge themselves on what we know to be delicious, letting them share our
fruit tells them we’re willing to share any food they find. This can lead to them clambering into
your kitchen. They don’t speak English, so it can’t be explained that the apples were ok to eat,
but the steak you’re having for dinner isn’t.
According to Dr. Clayton Lamb, a wildlife scientist in Elk Valley, “Fruit trees are one of the most
significant attractants. Unfortunately, unpicked fruit trees result in the lethal removal of many
bears across the province annually.”
WildSafe BC explains: When bears quit moving through the community and start using the
community as a foraging area for human-provided foods, then conflicts develop. Bears that start
using human-provided foods (anthropogenic foods, in the words of biologists) can become food-
conditioned. Once a bear starts equating humans with food, they can lose their natural wariness
of humans and become what is called human-habituated (often simply referred to as being
habituated). A habituated bear tolerates humans in much closer proximity than what is safe for
both bears and humans. This increases the potential for a dangerous interaction between the
bears and us.
Many small towns have taken steps to ‘Bear the Responsibility’. There are three actions to
consider. Trees can be pruned back significantly so they can be managed by ensuring fallen fruit
is cleared and fruit is picked often, even before it is fully ripe. Fully ripened fruit has a strong
scent.
Some trees should be removed if not managed. This seems severe but must be considered.
An alternative is electric fencing, which again seems severe. Still, it works, and it allows you to
wait until the fruit is ripe before picking. This makes a difference in the flavour of some fruit,
such as plums.
Early spring is the best time to prune your fruit trees. Removing large interior branches keeps the
tree healthy. It allows airflow and sunshine on the interior fruit, likewise with the removal of
dead and diseased branches.
In the fall, the Bear Smart Task Force has ways to help. We’ll do a full article on it then. The two
main programs are the Fruit Finders app, which assists pickers looking for fruit tree owners who
want to share, and the Fall Fruit Pressing, which offers fruit pressing service to those who have
an abundance of apples the ability to make juice. The Rossland Library loans out equipment, too.
The Rossland Bear Smart Task Force thanks you for reading. Our next article will be on what to
do if you encounter a bear.
