When it comes to bear awareness, Revelstoke local Kait Nicol said, "it's all education."

Having worked a decade as a wilderness guide and spent years in Alberta, Utah and Washington State, she speaks from plenty of experience.

"I did also live in southeast Alaska, which is pretty bear-y," she admitted. "But I'm originally from Ontario, so I'm not used to just opening my door and seeing bears climbing my fence."

Balancing 20 hours a week as the Revelstoke Bear Aware Society's newest executive director, on top of running operations for the Revelstoke Paddlesport Association and working for Arts Revelstoke, Nicol is also pursuing a master of counselling psychology through online studies at Yorkville University. How does she manage it all? "Carefully."

The face of Revelstoke Bear Aware since November, Nicol has already checked off her major task of setting out this next bear season's plan for her six-person board. The next item on her list is spreading public awareness among year-round locals, and starting earlier than past years.

"We have a lot of flyers and door pamphlets we hand out around town," she said. "With this warm weather, we may start to see (bears) as early as March."

Regardless of when bears emerge from their winter den, Nicol explained they finish a process called walking hibernation, by which point their months-lasting fat reserves have depleted.

"They're groggy and they're moving slow, but they're looking for food," she said, noting that with snow melting earlier in the year, "they might wake up sooner, because they have access to food sooner."

She said one of the biggest points of conflict that bears' post-slumber strolls can lead to is around unsecured garbage, even in cases where Revelstokians lack the means and infrastructure to bear-safe their waste.

"Especially for the trailer park areas where people don't have that storage," Nicol noted, highlighting the Southside neighbourhood. "I emphasize with people that it's kind of 'do your best.'"

Another tenet of animal awareness that Revelstoke Bear Aware works to bolster is fruit gleaning. This rids trees of their excess juicy treats that would naturally rot and attract hungry bears, but instead help feel human mouths via the Revelstoke Local Food Initiative Society farmers' markets and Community Connections (Revelstoke) Society food programs.

Nicol strongly advocates for residential fruit-picking during bear season, particularly with cherries that attract worms and emit a stronger scent. Revelstoke Bear Aware has a dedicated gleaning program and coordinator to help with this.

"You can really super-prune (trees) and you won't get fruit back," Nicol added.

Going forward, she's looking for ways to better educate renters and new homeowners in town about its bears.

"People come from all over Canada but also all over the world, (including) where they don't have bears, so you'd just never know," Nicol said about visitors who come to town. "Seeing bears in our downtown core is just a thing that happens."

The city is already working on a bear-resistant residential garbage bin system, she said, and Revelstoke has potential to join the province's Bear Smart Community Program, which has already recognized Castlegar, Kamloops, New Denver and nine other B.C. municipalities with "bear smart" status. More information about this program is available at .

The community can also expect a new strategic plan for Revelstoke Bear Aware in 2026, Nicol revealed, with the non-profit hoping to diversify its largely grant-based funding streams.

"We've been going on for a long time, and it's likely we'll continue to go on," she said, referencing Revelstoke Bear Aware's origins in the 1990s and formal creation in 2004.

Anyone experiencing challenges with bears in advised to call Revelstoke's conservation office at 1-877-952-7277. Revelstoke Bear Aware will host an awareness event with the city's conservation officers in May, open to children and other members of public.

"We do also field calls from the community if someone has smelly garbage or fruit on their trees," she mentioned, noting this entails them putting a removable sticker on waste bins rolled to the curb too early. "A lot of people think reporting the bear is it's going to get destroyed, but it doesn't."

On the contrary, Nicol said more awareness of bears in Revelstoke lowers their chances of being killed. While Revelstoke historically saw an average of a couple dozen bears put down per year, that figure has dropped to six bears annually. Only three bears were killed last year in town, and that number hit a remarkable zero in 2023.

"Hopefully this year when they wake up, they're not habituating (near humans) and there's lots of food sources for them," Nicol said.

For now, leading Revelstoke Bear Aware continues to complement her self-motivation and organizational skills, and give her purpose and meaning in the community.

To learn more about Revelstoke Bear Aware or inquire about volunteering, visit .

Asked which type of bear she prefers, she answered with a laugh, "black bears are cute... but not up close."