No bears were killed in Coquitlam last year

Across the Tri-Cities, a total of three bears were killed by conservation officers in 2025. No bears have been killed so far in 2026, according to B.C. Conservation Officer Service.

The figure represents a stark decline from recent years, as 11 bears were killed in the Tri-Cities in 2021 including eight in Coquitlam. Ten bears were killed in 2022.

While there were four bears killed in Coquitlam in 2024, there were no killings in the city in 2023 or 2025.

If calls to conservation officers are a good indicator, Coquitlam residents and black bears coexisted fairly harmoniously in 2025.

In 2017, Coquitlam residents made 1,786 calls to Conservation Officer Service. Last year, there were 649 calls to COS – a drop of approximately 63 percent.

Over that same period, the city recorded a more than 90 percent drop in the number of warnings and tickets issued for bylaw violations involving wildlife, such as setting out green carts outside of permitted times.

On Monday, Coquitlam council took stock of the city’s Urban Wildlife Program – an initiative designed to cut down on conflicts largely by reminding people to keep garbage and other attractants out of smelling distance.

Going forward, the city wants to ensure new development doesn’t fracture their efforts at wildlife coexistence.

“We know with population growth that the message may not be getting through to everybody,” said Coun. Craig Hodge on Monday.

To get that message across, city staff are set to conduct an audit to ensure residents are punctual when it comes to putting their carts on the curb.

“In 2027 we’re going to do the early cart set-out audit again, and that allows us to reach every single household in Coquitlam,” said the city’s environmental manager Caresse Selk.

The city may also be shopping for carts that defy gravity.

Each year, an average of 235 waste carts need to be repaired because of bear damage.

“We’re looking for a cart that can [withstand] all of Coquitlam’s weather conditions and also one that is easy for our residents to use,” Selk explained Monday.

The city previously considered gravity-locking carts – which are designed to stay locked when knocked over – but scuttled the project in 2015 due to cost.

However, Coquitlam is set to give the gravity-locking carts a pilot project in 2027 at a projected cost of $200,000.

While logistical details need to be worked out, Selk said they’d likely run the pilot on Burke Mountain due to the high number of bears.

Staff are also looking to put some distance between bears and the residents who come out to see them and snap photos around Partington Creek when salmon are spawning.

Besides education and signs, the city may set up traffic barricades and step up patrols, according to Selk.

There were 211 bears killed by conservation officers across the province in 2025 – the lowest total over the past decade. There were 603 bears killed in 2023 and 303 in 2024.

That decline is due to, “an increase of natural food sources and proactive community efforts,” according to COS.