A stock photo of a black bear.

The City of Kamloops is gearing up to launch a one-year pilot program to test bear-resistant organic waste bins in Juniper.

As part of the program, the City’s Environmental Services Coordinator, Danielle Sparks, says 300 bear-safe bins will roll out to homes in Juniper Ridge this summer.

“We have a certain type of cart that we’ve gone through and we’ve seen other bear smart communities use,” she explained. “We’re going to be testing the effectiveness of those carts, residents’ willingness and ability to properly use them, and then the impact on patterns to human-bear conflict.”

Depending on the success of the pilot, Sparks explains they will then look at potentially rolling out these bear-resistant organic waste bins to other neighborhoods.

“That’s why we’re are running a one-year pilot program to be able to kind of iron out all of these things, because we do recognize, there is a big financial piece to it.”

Additionally, Sparks says while it is up to the homeowner to manage their garbage bins and ensure they are bear-safe, the City is wanting to help out where it can since Kamloops is a bear-smart community.

“There are a lot of questions that we want to make sure that we’re going forth with the correct solution for residents and, we’re not quite sure, but we hope to be able to have more options to provide residents with solutions to better manage their solid waste carts.”

She says the goal will be to ensure they are going forward with the correct solution for residents with bear-safe bins.