This Saturday, Aug. 31 is the first of four community fruit tree roundup days that aim to mitigate human-wildlife conflict while providing food for consumption.
Those with excess fruit from trees on their property can deliver them to the town lagoon, 141 Bow Bend Way (adjacent to the SLS Centre) from 12 noon to 3 p.m. this Saturday.
Recognizing that not all tree fruit has ripened, there's additional collection days on Sept. 14, 28 and Oct. 5.
We're starting to draw close to fall, a time that typically creates a perfect storm of an abundance of fruit and wildlife seeking food to bulk up for the winter ahead. In recent years, bear-human conflicts have been more commonly reported.
Residents can donate their fruit in one of two ways.
Picked fruit that hasn't touched the ground will be redistributed to local food providers, including the Cochrane Food Bank, the Îyâhrhe Nakoda Food Bank, and the Helping Hands food shed.
Fallen fruit will be donated to the Cochrane Ecological Institute, located about 28 km northwest of Cochrane, that will be used to feed injured and orphaned wildlife.
When people deliver their fruit to the Cochrane lagoon, they'll be separate drop-off points for both picked and fallen fruit.
The fallen fruit must be firm. If it's gone mushy, please use it in your compost or dispose of it in your green bin.
Trish Kluane, Manager of Parks and Open Spaces, says the roundoff is a community-driven initiative that they hope will continue annually.
It's part of a growing conversation that is leading to further educational programs on how to manage and utilize fruit so not to attract wildlife to yards.
"We have had conversations with local experts in the community along with CEAC in regard to those other attractants," says Kluane. "We want to encourage people to grow their own food as food security becomes more of an issue, but we have to do it in a safe and sustainable way and maintain that balance with our local wildlife as well."
Frankie-Lou Nelligan, executive director of Cultivate Cochrane, says the town has been instrumental in working together with partners of the Cochrane and Area Food Connections (CAFC) and Cochrane Environmental Action Committee (CEAC) to make the roundup possible.
"It's such a positive thing that that they're being more involved in this than in many small communities," says Nelligan. "Usually this is something that a group of volunteers and small communities have to do entirely on their own, but the Town of Cochrane saw how much benefit this could bring to the town by removing a lot of the negative wildlife interactions."
Cochrane is a Zone 3 growing zone, and while we don't have a large variety of fruit-bearing trees, apples, crabapples and sour cherry trees are common.
"There's tons and tons and tons of crab apples and different varieties," Nelligan says. "A lot of people think of them as just ornamental, but a bear doesn't. It sees a small piece of fruit that it wants and takes it."
Cultivate Cochrane, like other partners in the CFAC, are dedicated to empowering people to grow their own food through demonstration and education.
Many of the fruits are edible by humans, but it's not unusual for people to be uncertain of how to use them, or for several different reasons, don't or can't.
"There's lots of different types of apples that are actually edible that are on people's properties in both the Town of Cochrane and in the surrounding rural area.
"And those sour cherries, I personally love using them for a lot of my preserving projects. Many people don't understand how to use those cherries, but wildlife sure does."
A fruit tree map is one of the initiatives in the works from this year's collection. It's also an opportunity to connect with people who may be interested in volunteering for future related programs.
'It's just going to fold over into a lot more programs during the course of year or more education, more awareness on how to plant your fruit to discourage wildlife access and that sort of thing," says Nelligan.
Recently, Wildlife Coexistence Cochrane has been created with the support from the Cochrane Environmental Action Committee. It aims to raise public awareness and knowledge of local wildlife in and around Cochrane to foster conflict-free coexistence.
Its official launch will take place during this weekend's Cochrane Discovery Days. The organization will be represented at the Natural History Discovery Zone at The Station, 306 Railway St. W. on Saturday and Sunday (Aug. 31 and Sept. 1) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Concurrently, Cultivate Cochrane is promoting the food sovereignty movement.
"We're looking at introducing recipes to people and ideas for how they can use the food that they have on their properties."
She says several volunteers have stepped forward to help with the roundup on Saturday, but more people are welcomed.
"If there are people who want to be more involved in food sovereignty movement or learning more about working with wildlife, we encouraged them to come to the roundup, because there's no such thing as too many hands to help. "
Here are some contacts:
To connect with Cultivate Cochrane, click here.
To learn more about the Cochrane and Area Food Connections, visit here.
To connect with the Cochrane Environmental Action Committee, click here.
For more on the Cochrane Ecological Institute, visit here.
For more information on the event, visit Cochrane.ca/TreeFruitRoundUp or contact Parks@Cochrane.ca.