Time for Nature

Campers Go "Bare"

July 12, 2004

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve of Canada

Long Beach, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve of Canada
© W. Lynch, Parks Canada

The long, sandy beaches of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve of Canada on Vancouver Island attract thousands of campers to the park's Green Point Campground each year. The large berry patches near the campground are also popular spots for the area's black bears . The park's Bare Campsite Program works towards ensuring that both groups of visitors can safely enjoy the area's natural treasures.

What about bears?

It's easy to understand the threat bears can pose to campers, but not everyone may realize that the threat campers pose to bears can be just as severe.

By leaving out food and garbage, campers attract bears to campsites. Campground-savvy bears are even attracted by visual clues, such as empty coolers and empty garbage bags. As these bears frequent more campsites looking for food rewards, they become more of a risk to public safety and may eventually have to be destroyed.

Bear saved by "bare" experiment

A very attractive site for a bear
© A. Spooner, Parks Canada

It was the potential destruction of a bear in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve of Canada that inspired a trial run of the approach later named the Bare Campsite Program. Relatively easy access to human food brought a bear to the campsite during a long weekend in 1998, despite ongoing efforts to educate campers about bears. A survey that year found more than 40 percent of unattended campsites had items that could attract bears.

Park staff and campers worked together to reduce these bear "attractants" to near-zero. After only three days, the bear moved on and did not return.

A "bare" campsite is of little interest to a bear
© A. Spooner, Parks Canada

The Bare Campsite Program was put in place full-time in 1999. Using pictures of a "bare" campsite and a site attractive to bears, park campground staff educate campers about the bare campsite rules, with help from a First Nations patrolperson and crews from Young Canada Works . There is a Bare Campsite segment in every Heritage Communications evening program. The park also provides bear-proof foodcaches for campers without a vehicle.

Living with wildlife

Feedback from bears and campers has been positive. The percentage of unattended campsites with items to attract bears has fallen to under five percent in recent years. Bears are now passing through the campground instead of staying to search for food.

Wildlife-Human Conflict Specialist Bob Hansen, who created the program, says its success is due to the time that program staff, particularly the First Nations patrolperson, spend making sure that each group of campers understands what's at stake.

"Once they realize that they have an important role to play in ensuring their own safety and in protecting bears, most people are on-side and in fact become promoters of the program" notes Hansen.

How to keep a "bare" campsite

To bear-proof your campsite, store all food and anything that might attract wildlife in a hard-sided vehicle, trailer or motor home or in campground food storage lockers (not in a tent or tent-trailer) when not in use. These items include:

• coolers (full and empty)
• food and condiments
• garbage/wrappings/plastic bags
• dishes/pots
• pet food/bowls
• bottles/cans (full and empty)
• tablecloths
• toiletries/suntan lotion/insect spray
• campstoves/barbeques
• containers of gasoline/oil
• any item associated with food preparation or clean up (soap, dish cloths and towels)
• pails with grey water (water used for cooking or washing)

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