'My face was buried in her fur': North Cowichan woman survived bear attack – Times Colonist

A woman who suffered serious injuries in an altercation with a black bear in North Cowichan in August says she is undeterred in her quest to protect the animals and the wild spaces where they live.
The attack occurred at Stoney Hill Regional Park, in a region Icel Dobell has pushed to protect ever since she first spotted logging tape in the mountain area above the park in 2018.
It was about 8:30 on the morning of Aug. 15 and Dobell was walking a trail loop in the park with her Shetland sheepdogs, Skye and Jo.
The trail was virtually empty, so Dobell said she decided to take the dogs off-leash partway through the hike.
As she rounded a corner where visibility was limited, the two dogs took off, which surprised her.
But as she drew closer, she spotted a black bear cub up a tree. The dogs were between her and the tree. She called them back and they returned to her side, she said.
Then she saw the mother bear.
The animal rose up from the salal bushes below the tree.
“It’s massive, and it stood up to its full height, and it looked at us,” Dobell said. “And then it charged.”
Though what happened next only took seconds, “it felt like forever,” she said.
She recalled glancing around for a stick, seeing the bear charging at her dog Skye just as the dog arrived at her side, and realizing its haunches looked just like the pistons on a steam locomotive.
Some part of her marvelled at how surreal it all was, she said.
As the bear charged toward her and the dog, she said, “maternal instinct” for the dog took over.
“I looked at the bear and I said: ‘You are not going to kill my baby,’ ” she said. “I also knew in that moment, if I watched her tear my dog to pieces, I would go insane. I would never, ever be able to handle that grief.”
So Dobell, who is 65 and weighs about 100 pounds, put her arms up and yelled loudly — as loud as she could.
Then she charged back at the bear.
The two collided, with her arms around the bear, and it landed on top of her, said Dobell, who estimated it weighed about 350 pounds.
The bear stood up again and the two looked at each other, recalled Dobell.
“We’re standing there, and, you know, a moment ago, my face was buried in her fur,” said Dobell. “There was no viciousness in her eyes. She just looked totally confused.”
Somehow, Dobell was able to walk away, despite multiple injuries, including a broken bone in her ankle.
When she reached the parking lot, which was about a 20-minute hike from where the altercation happened, a retired fireman spotted her. He cleaned her wounds and an ambulance was called.
At some point when she and the bear landed on the ground, her head had hit a rock and she was left with a concussion that kept her in bed for six weeks, which is still healing.
She also suffered a torn lung and multiple puncture wounds on her neck and upper shoulder, which were right above her artery and nerves.
“It’s unbelievable I’m alive. It’s just unbelievable,” she said.
However, Dobell said she is left with nothing but gratitude that her dogs are alive, and love — for her family, but also for the bear and the forest that wild animals live in.
Dobell said she can’t shake the feeling that what she experienced happened for a reason.
Stoney Hill, along with Mount Prevost, Mount Tzouhalem, Mount Richards, Maple Mountain and Mount Sicker, is part of a 5,400-hectare reserve of municipally owned forest lands that encompass what are known as the “six mountains.”
It’s significant and unusual that these sections of forest are owned by the municipality of North Cowichan, said Larry Pynn, a former environment reporter for the Vancouver Sun who lives in the Maple Bay area and frequently writes about the municipal forest reserve on his sixmountains.ca website.
“Communities are raising millions of dollars to buy very small portions of private coastal Douglas fir. We already own 5,000 hectares of it,” Pynn said.
Dobell was one of the founders of a local forest conservation group called Where Do We Stand, which hosted an event in March of 2019 to discuss the future of the municipal forests, which they wanted to protect.
By December of that year, North Cowichan council had voted to impose a moratorium on new logging, pending a community engagement process, after what Pynn described as an “outpouring of concern” from residents.
“They were overflowing in the council chambers,” he said.
Council also signed a memorandum of understanding two years later with Quwutsun First Nation that they would engage in discussions on a co-management framework for the forest.
However, the future of six mountains and its forests is still uncertain.
A three-year technical review of North Cowichan’s municipal forests completed in 2023 included a telephone and online survey that showed strong public support for limiting or halting timber harvesting.
Despite that, on Aug. 20, 2025, council voted 4-3 in favour of a motion to make logging in the reserve a “strategic priority” for 2026, with councillors Christopher Justice and Chris Istace and Mayor Rob Douglas opposed.
However, in November of that year, following public backlash — including from First Nations — council backed away from the logging plan and agreed to re-start talks with Quwutsun First Nation on co-management.
As the Oct. 17 municipal election approaches, the position of some incumbent councillors on logging in the municipal reserve is still unclear.
In an online survey this week, the non-partisan Common Ground Cowichan Alliance asked candidates if they would commit to keeping the reserve free from logging and continue the co-management partnership with Quw’utsun Nation.
But none of the four incumbents who voted in favour of prioritizing logging — Mike Caljouw, Bruce Findlay, Becky Hogg and Tek Manhas — responded to the question.
Pynn said he views this month’s election as “critical” for the future of the municipal forest lands.
Given the stakes, Dobell said her interaction with the bear has only galvanized her resolve to protect the forest.
“Do something. Get out and vote. Find out about your local candidates, and find out what’s really happening with the forest,” she said. “If you’re going to actually defend what you love, you have to show up over and over, not just once.”
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