Skip to content

Bear may be in Scout Island and South Lakeside areas in Williams Lake

Bear warning signs went up at Scout Island on Wednesday.

Bear warning signs went up at Scout Island on Wednesday.

"We got a call yesterday morning at about 10 a.m. from the city that there was a bear sighted on the trails. I went over there and walked on the trails and there's definitely fresh scat in the area," Sgt. Len Butler of the BC Conservation Service in Williams Lake says.

Following up, Butler learned there's been a bear there for about three weeks.

"That concerned me so I talked with the city. They were going to put up the signs, and I put a culvert trap in behind the city's work station there," he explains.

Thursday morning Butler walked the trails at 7 a.m. and checked the trap; however, he did not see anything else.

"I'll probably leave the trap there for now and see what happens. In a few days we'll do another walk through and I've advised the daycare at Scout Island not to take the kids out for any walkabouts."

Butler suggests there's a possibility a bear could be swimming back and forth in the lake because the conservation office is getting calls about bear sightings on South Lakeside.

Hoping the bear leaves, because he'd rather not have to put it down, Butler says his biggest concern is safety.



Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
Read more