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Used book sale nets $1,455.58 Many thanks to Library Trustee Betty McWhinnie and all the Rotary Club volunteers who helped make our used book sale a huge success.
Used book sale nets $1,455.58

Many thanks to Library Trustee Betty McWhinnie and all the Rotary Club volunteers who helped make our used book sale a huge success. We would also like to send a special thank you to Jim Chan and the Marketplace IGA for once again allowing us to set up the sale in front of the store. The central location certainly improves the book sales. The proceeds from the sale go towards purchasing new books for the collection.

Betty McWhinnie said: "I was very impressed with the generosity of the people who bought books. Many people donated $20!"

This past weekend was very eventful in our neighbourhood. On Thursday evening I came home with my dog to find a bear sitting on my stove! He had torn the screen door off the hinges and walked into the kitchen and helped himself to a freshly baked peach pie, a dozen bagels, a bag or two of chocolate chips, and about 3 pounds of Swiss cheese. Needless to say, the kitchen was a mess. He had opened the fridge, freezer and cupboards and pulled out almost all the food in them. Once I was able to get my dog out of the house I closed the door and screamed for my husband. I locked the dog up and my husband let the bear out. He broke into two more houses over the weekend and finally the conservation officer destroyed him on Monday. A very sad but inevitable ending to the story.

As I was thinking about this week’s column, I decided to highlight some of the books and videos we have on bears. There are two books that should be read if you are not sure about how to behave if confronted with a bear: Bear attacks: Their causes and avoidance by Stephen Herrero and Hiking in bear country by Keith Vincent Scott. We have a number of pictorial works with extraordinary photos of bears in the wild: Black bear by Daniel Cox, Bears by Donald Dewey, Grizzly by Michio Hochino, Spirit Bear: Encounters with the white bear of the Western rainforest by Charles Russell, Grizzly bear mountain by Jack Boudreau, Black bear country by Michael Furtman, and The magnificent bears of North America and where to find them by Keith Vincent Scott.

The Bear’s Embrace

by Patricia Van Tighem is a heart-wrenching story about the author’s attack by a grizzly bear and her long recovery, both emotional and physical Other encounters with bears include Grizzly country by Andy Russell, Alaska bear tales by Larry Kanuit, Grizzly years by Doug Peacock, and Among the bears: Raising orphan cubs in the wild by Benjamin Kilham.

The National Film Board of Canada has produced two videos on bears, both available at the Library: Bears and Man and Project Grizzly . Whistler bear researcher Michael Allen is featured in a BBC production entitled The natural world: In the company of bears . As well we have a National Geographic video entitled The grizzlies .

For more information on bears and how to live with them, you can attend the Bear Smart presentations every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Maurice Young Millennium Place.

The Resort Municipality of Whistler implemented The Black Bear Management Plan in 1998 to reduce the number of bears destroyed each year as a result of human-bear conflict. The program is very successful; from 1999 to 2000 the number of bear complaints received was reduced by 59 per cent and the number of bears destroyed dropped a dramatic 91 per cent, to five in 2000.

For bear information, contact The Jennifer Jones Whistler Bear Society at info@bearsmart.com or call Sylvia Dolsen at 604-905-4209, www.bearsmart.com . For information on municipal measures contact Brian Barnett, general manager of engineering and public works, at bbarnett@whistler.ca .