The Columbia-Shuswap Regional District says it is aware about an increasing number of concerns around wildlife in the North Shuswap.

During a Saturday briefing, Emergency Operations Centre, Director, Derek Sutherland, said conversation officers have had reports about bears, raccoons, and cougars over the past week in part due to the smell of rotting garbage.

“Power being out so food is rotting, and the smell is driving animals into the area,” he said. “So we’re getting garbage bins and freezer trucks out there to help us deal with that situation.”

“That will be a large undertaking starting right now.”

Speaking Monday, John MacLean, the CSRD’s Chief Administrative Officer, said garbage bins have been set up at the Celista Fire Hall, the Scotch Creek Market, and at the Anglemont Ross Creek General Store.

“We’re attracting wild animals in larger numbers to these areas, so the best we can do is to remove as much of the food waste that is an attractant to these animals to help ensure that the first responders have one less risk, or one militated risk that they have to deal with,” he said.

“We’re hoping that that will help ensure the safety of the first responders who are in there working so hard. That is for food waste. Its not for fridges and freezers.”

MacLean says more details about that fridge and freezer disposal program for residents will be released as soon as it is finalized.

Interior Health has released a number of food-safety tips for people who return home after an evacuation. The BC Government has also released information for people here.

Sutherland also says there are plans to open a resiliency centre in Salmon Arm to support residents from other communities who have been displaced.

CSRD continuing to barge supplies across Shuswap Lake

The Columbia-Shuswap Regional District says work to get essential supplies over to the north Shuswap continues.

Sutherland says the regional district has been using a barge to transport supplies between Eagle Bay and St. Ives multiple times a day, as road access remains limited.

“And that is to service those areas that are kind of cut off from the order areas, and its about a half hour across the lake for those folks,” he said.

The community of Anglemont is now on evacuation alert, but St. Ives is not under evacuation order or alert. Residents in both those communities were encouraged to voluntarily leave their homes over the past week, though the CSRD said it was also supporting those who wanted to stay.

“The barge is being used for some dangerous goods as well as some other good, so anyone who wants to use that barge needs to contact the Emergency Operations Centre directly,” CSRD Information Officer, Erick Thompson, added.

“You can’t show up and assume you could get on, only because of the dangerous goods.”

MacLean was asked “who gave the order to stop food, water, and gas supplies coming to residents who have chosen to stay behind to protect their property?”

“The folks that choose to stay are allowed to do that as adults,” he said. “The law in B.C. is if you refuse a legal evacuation order, you are to stay on your property and you are deemed to be self- sufficient. We do not supply materials to the folks that make that choice.”

Some residents have since been trained to work alongside the Wildfire Service. Those people will be getting supplies like lunch and water, according to Mike McCulley, a BC Wildfire Service Information Officer. McCulley wasn’t able to speak to others in the area who chose to stay behind.

“We are required to provide security, as best we can, for evacuation order areas and we’re not going to take the risk of having third parties enter order areas at all,” MacLean said, when asked why some family members trying to send supplies to people who stayed behind were stopped.