Some Windsor Park neighbours have found themselves tangled up in blackberry bramble and red tape.
A strip of districtowned right-of-way that runs between Barbara Phillips' and Beryl Cheetham's fences on Fairfield Road has become overgrown with blackberries, which are attracting bears.
Phillips' husband spent 50 years knocking down the nasty plant, but with his death three years ago, the bushes have grown unchecked.
Since then, they've had annual bear visits to her yard, including one that ended in a bear plowing through Phillips' fence to get at the blackberries.
Cheetham too had a recent run-in.
"It was actually, pardon the expression, taking a dump just a few yards from where I was sitting," Cheetham said with a laugh.
When Cheetham stopped at District of North Vancouver hall to pay her municipal taxes, she asked if staff could remove the bushes and was told no, because there are simply too many of the unused rights-of-way and not enough staff members to maintain them.
When Cheetham and Phillips suggested hiring a contractor to remove the bushes at their own expense, they were also told no - because it was on district property.
As a compromise, Phillips and Cheetham were told they could trim any parts of the brambles that cross over their property line and put the trimmings at the end of their driveway for municipal staff to pick up.
"There's no way we would phone them and have them come out, making a special journey just to pick up a few branches that have come over the fence. The problem is behind the fence," Cheetham said. "I just don't understand the idea that we can't touch it; they don't want to."
Phillips, meanwhile, said she's more concerned for the bears than her own fence.
"I understand that this is bear territory. We are the ones who encroached on their land, so I don't want any harm to come to the animals - but the thing is, I think with having all these bushes, it just encourages them and they're the ones that suffer in the end because they have to shoot them. I don't like that. It's their habitat," she said.
Following inquiries from the North Shore News, a district spokesperson said residents can call municipal hall to request permission to cut nuisance bushes on district land.
"If they want to hire somebody to clear that away, what they'd first need to do is meet with the district so that a district staff person could have a look at what vegetation is there ... before allowing it to be removed," said communications officer Jeanine Bratina.
