© Environment News Service (ENS) 2001
July 19, 2001

VICTORIA, British Columbia, Canada, July 19, 2001 (ENS) - The newly elected Liberal government in British Columbia has lifted the three year ban on the hunting of grizzly bears imposed by the previous government earlier this year. The move has infuriated the province's conservation groups, and one prominent bear scientist says the decision turns the bears into a political football.

The Liberal government was sworn in on June 5. In announcing the lifting of the grizzly hunting ban Monday, Water, Land and Air Protection Minister Joyce Murray reminded the province that the Liberals had campaigned on a "commitment to replace the blanket moratorium on grizzly bear hunting with regional moratoriums and a scientific peer review panel."

"The blanket moratorium on grizzly bear hunting was imposed by the previous government for political reasons and was inconsistent with the wildlife branch’s own analysis. We made a commitment to the people that we would replace the blanket moratorium with a proper peer review by scientists and biologists, and with regional moratoriums where appropriate. We are honoring that commitment today," said Murray.The previous New Democratic Party government imposed the three year moratorium on hunting grizzlies after many warnings from prominent bear scientists that the hunting must stop if the bears are to survive. Polls show that over 90 percent of British Columbians support the moratorium.

Wayne McCrory has studied the province's bears for over 30 years. A bear biologist and one of 12 scientists on the former B.C. government's grizzly science panel that recommended the moratorium, he says allowing hunting again is not based on good conservation principles.

Speaking from the Slocan Valley, "a beautiful valley that still has grizzlies," McCrory said the removal of the ban will jeopardize the bear populations again. "The simple fact of the matter," he told ENS, "is that they are cutting the forests of B.C at a rate unparalleded on the planet. The logging roads are opening up areas that allow poachers and hunters to have greaater access to bears, having an enormous impact on the grizzlies."

"It's political stupidity, not based on any good science," McCrory said. "It's just more smoke and mirrors cloaking things. There were 68 independent biologists who signed a petition asking for a moratorium on the hunt. Now they're forming a new science panel with bunch of U.S. biologists, leapfrogging around a critical conservation issue."

The grizzlies are already extinct, endangered or in jeopardy in many areas of B.C., says McCrory, and adding the logging impacts makes their survival even less assured. McCrory will not be on the new panel and said he did not want to be "until they address the overcutting of the forests."

Murray says the new scientific panel will "review and comment on grizzly management practices." The six man panel will have authority to receive scientific submissions, and its recommendations will be made public.

"The wildlife branch conducts detailed analysis of B.C.’s grizzly bear populations using advanced scientific methods, including DNA analysis. Ministry biologists have confirmed there are at least 13,000 grizzly bears in British Columbia," Murray said.But McCrory says the crux of the matter is that the grizzly bear is North America's slowest reproducing mammal, not like deer and elk which can recover more quickly from overhunting. If you put the grizzly population into a decline, it could take 45 years to restore itself to a natural level," he warned.

Mother grizzlies account for from 30 to 50 percent of the legal trophy kills, McCrory said, and breeding females are critical to maintaining the population. "Lifting the ban is not scientific, or ethical. The government is "using the grizzlies as a political football to cater to a lobby group," he charged.

The new bear panel is composed of five American scientists and one from British Columbia. One member of the new panel, Dr. Sterling Miller of the National Wildlife Federation, who is based in Missoula, Montana, says the panelists were chosen on the recommendation of the International Association for Bear Research and Management to the B.C. Ministry of Environment.

Miller and McCrory agree that U.S. scientists were brought in because most Canadian scientists have already taken a position on the issue.

The new scientific panel is composed of:

Dr. John Beecham, a former president of the International Association for Bear Research and Management, is a black bear expert with experience in hunt management and demographic research. He is retired from the Idaho Fish and Game Department.

Dr. Fred Bunnell is an expert on grizzly bear ecology and a professor at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Dave Garshelis, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources scientist since the mid-1980s, is expert in black bear hunt management and population assessment.

Dr. Sterling Miller is past president of the International Association for Bear Research and Management and a senior scientist with the National Wildlife Federation.

Dr. Jim Peek, on the faculty of the University of Idaho, is an expert on bear and predator management. He has served on numerous national committees for the Wildlife Society in the United States.

Dr. Dale Strickland is a wildlife consultant experienced with grizzly bear issues in Wyoming where he formerly worked for the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish.

Dr. Miller said the group will meet by phone next month and in person in the fall. Their report may be ready in a year and certainly within two years.

"The Ministry of Environment has given us the freedom to define the scope of our work as we see fit," he said. While the entire scope of the panel's work is not yet determined, it will at least investigate the basis which exists for the ministry's figure of 13,000 grizzly bears in British Columbia.

"We are all coming to it free of prejudices," he said. "We will evaluate whether this figure is credible or not."

We hope to have some kind of report ready in a year, and certainly within 2 years, that period of time will depend on what we defend of scope of our work.

McCrory, from the previous panel, says he cannot see the new panel not arriving at the same place as the old panel did."We need long term population studies," he said, "and while doing these we should not be hunting grizzly bears."

"Our government is committed to maintaining strong scientific standards for wildlife management and protection - and ensuring openness and accountability in all our decisions," Murray said. "Where grizzly bear populations are healthy, a carefully managed hunt will be permitted. Conservation science will dictate which moratoriums will remain in place. Our scientific panel will help ensure public trust and confidence in wildlife management decisions."

The Western Canada Wilderness Committee is conducting an email poll with responses directed to the office of Premier Gordon Campbell. Visitors to the Wilderness Committee website can fill out a form showing whether they support a permanent ban on the trophy hunting of grizzlies, support the three year moratorium, or believe a moratorium is not needed at all.

A list of the regional bear hunting moratoriums is available from the B.C. Ministry of Environment online at: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/main/newsrel/fisc0102/july/bg159B.htm Error: Unable to read footer file.