Not leaving pet food outside, cleaning up unwanted or fallen fruit from your fruit trees and properly disposing of food waste are all important ways you can help reduce attracting wildlife to your yard.

The City of Cranbrook has two bylaws in place which are designed to discourage the deliberate act of using food sources to attract wild animals, and in turn create unwanted conflict with a variety of wildlife.

Under the city’s Deer Feeding Prohibition bylaw, as an example, residents are not to directly or indirectly leave or place food, food waste or other edible materials on their property to deliberately feed deer.

However, residents who are using their properties for farm operations, are growing fruit and vegetables for their own personal use or have ornamental plants or flowers are not contravening the bylaw.

The city’s Animal Control bylaw states that you must not feed or shelter any type of wildlife or leave pet food, food waste, seeds, nuts, or fruit fallen from bird feeders or trees on any property, so that this material can be readily available to any wildlife.

To help residents around the region manage their fruit trees, Wildsight offers a great Apple Capture program.

The program lends equipment to people to use their fruit to reduce attractants for local wildlife. Wildsight also has a Tree Share Board which connects people who may not be able to pick their own fruit with people who could use it and would do the picking.

Learn more about the Wildsight program.

Having wildlife in our community is a normal part of life in Cranbrook. But using some of these simple steps and taking advantage of the programs available through Wildsight, will help keep unwanted encounters to a minimum.

Lead image: Apples left on the ground or unpicked are major attractants for bears. e-KNOW file photo

City of Cranbrook

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