Lowest number of black bears were killed in 2025, B.C. conservation officers say

B.C.’s conservation service says in 2025 its officers shot and killed the lowest number of black bears since statistics were made public.

The B.C. Conservation Officer Service says 2025 saw the lowest number of bears that had to be destroyed since the government agency began publishing its statistics in 2011, with only 178 bears dispatched.

The figure is a 65 per cent drop compared to 2023.

Insp. Drew Milne of the BCCOS says last year’s numbers are the result of a number of factors. For starters, it was a good berry year providing plenty of food for Vancouver Island’s black bear population, but more importantly, that low number is a direct result of work being done by municipalities across B.C.

“Every community that really adopts a strong bylaw, you’re going to see a reduction in the amount of conflicts and a great example would be Tofino,” said Milne.

“In 2025 and actually 2024 there were zero bears killed in the municipality of Tofino,” said Dan Law, the mayor of Tofino.

Law says that wasn’t always the case, and for years the municipality struggled with bears in its community.

“It wasn’t unheard of to have five or six bears in Tofino killed every year,” said Law.

In 2024, Tofino adopted its Wildlife Attractant Bylaw, bringing in a new solid waste management system. The municipality established new rules around how household and commercial garbage is dealt with and paired those measures with the potential of fines for non-compliance.

“We had buy-in from businesses, Tourism Tofino, the chamber of commerce,” said Tofino’s mayor. “It was a whole community approach and that’s what makes it successful.”

In contrast, neighbouring Ucluelet, which currently does not have a Wildlife Attractant Bylaw in place, saw 13 bears destroyed within its borders last year.

“Which was the highest in the province for bear destructions,” said Milne.

Ucluelet’s mayor says that is going to change. Staff have been asked to come up with their own bylaw while also investigating a Wildlife Safety Response Officer Model. Funding options will be considered in Ucluelet’s upcoming budget deliberations.

Mollie Cameron, president of Wild Wise Society, a non-profit organization works to mitigate conflicts between humans and wildlife through education, says Ucluelet is on the right path forward and is confident that its potential incoming bylaw will make a difference if adopted.

“I hope a lot of island communities start to implement these bylaws because we are seeing that in those communities that have taken that step, they are seeing reductions in not only conflicts but in the amount of bears that we’re losing,” said Cameron.

“It’s a cultural shift that we as British Columbians need to adopt,” said Milne.