Who do you call when you have a bear in your apple tree or a coyote chasing your Pekinese? The Conservation Officers, of course.

They are quite busy these days. There are only three officers to serve the area from Kitwanga to Topley, Huckleberry Mine to Stewart. So if the squirrel raiding your bird feeder is not threatening a human life or polluting a major fish stream, you can understand why you don't hear back right away if you phone.

It's different if you have a grizzly in your backyard. The Conservation Officers (COs) will trap the bear and drive it to a remote site far from tree planter or logging camps for release. There must be enough bear food available in the release area and not too many other bears.

But tight budgets and manpower shortages mean that black bears roaming in town get less than the royal treatment. They are trapped and destroyed. COs have found that releasing black bears in remote areas is often not successful. There is such a high population of blacks that it's not necessary to save every one, with the exception of some bear sows with cubs.

In 2006, 69 black bears in our region have been destroyed, up from the normal 20 to 30 per year. That makes a good reason to clean up your fruit trees, garbage and compost. Any bear that is attracted to your yard may die needlessly.