Grizzly Bear Recovery Planned in British Columbia
8/3/99
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Title: Grizzly Bear Recovery Planned in British Columbia
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 3, 1999
VICTORIA, British Columbia, Canada, August 3, 1999 (ENS) - Two pilot
plans designed to restore threatened grizzly bear populations in high
priority areas of southern British Columbia have been announced by
Environment, Lands and Parks Minister Joan Sawicki.
The plans will address habitat protection, access management, reduction
of bear-human conflicts, protected areas management, improving public
information and education, and research and monitoring of populations.
The plans will also provide guidance for decisions made through existing
land use planning processes.
The first two of nine areas to be targeted for bear restoration are the
North Cascades in the Manning Park area and the Kettle-Granby area near
Grand Forks. "Grizzly populations in these two areas next to the U.S.
border are threatened. Both areas adjoin parts of British Columbia where
the animals have already ceased to exist," Sawicki said Thursday.
The most advanced recovery plan to date is the North Cascades project,
with a draft plan expected to be complete by the end of 1999. Work is to
begin on the Kettle-Granby pilot by the new year.
By some estimates, there are 50 grizzly bears left in the Granby area,
but just a few in the North Cascades.
Recovery teams, which include staff from the Ministry of Environment,
Lands and Parks; the Ministry of Forests; and the Ministry of Energy and
Mines, will develop plans to determine what must be done to help each of
the nine threatened grizzly populations in the province recover.
"Like salmon, grizzly bears are a powerful symbol of the natural
heritage that British Columbians treasure," said Sawicki. "These pilot
projects are an important component of our Grizzly Bear Conservation
Strategy to ensure the survival of the grizzlies.
But conservationist Colleen McCrory of the Valhalla Wilderness Society
is disappointed in the government's plan. Based in New Denver, near the
newly announced bear recovery areas, she says there has been too much
study and too little action. "The problem with it is they have had four
years to do the studies. We're in a emergency with grizzly bears in
British Columbia. There is no emergency action plan."
McCrory was a United Nations Global 500 Award winner and a Goldman Prize
winner in 1992 for her efforts to conserve the forests of Canada and
their wild inhabitants. In her view, "This is a terrible decision for
the grizzly bears. It's a token, a little step. This is hardly the big
plan we've been waiting for in B.C."
Alton Harestad, co-chair of the Grizzly Bear Scientific Advisory
Committee was more positive in his assessment of the government's plan.
"Development of recovery plans for threatened populations of grizzly
bears is important to the management of this species in British
Columbia," said Harestad. "These efforts, especially if combined with
other initiatives as outlined in the Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy,
are a welcome step towards securing the future of grizzlies in our
province."
Measures to promote the survival of grizzly bear populations include:
* tighter hunting regulations, including limited entry hunting and guide
outfitter quotas;
* a surcharge on bear-hunting licence fees which goes to the Habitat
Conservation Trust Fund for grizzly bear management projects;
* increased grizzly bear population research;
* the "Be Bear Aware" program and bear-proofing of landfills to reduce
bear-human conflicts and the number of bears destroyed over the long
term;
* support for the "Grizz Ed" program funded by the Vancouver Grizzlies
basketball team.
* protection for grizzly bear habitat under the Identified Wildlife
Management Strategy, an important component of the Forest Practices
Code.
McCrory says the protection of grizzly bear habitat under the Forest
Practices Code means very little in comparison to the protection for the
timber industry. "What it means is as long as they don't impact the the
cut they can protect the wildlife. The government has said we'll protect
wildlife in B.C. but we'll only allow that protection to be one percent
of the cut."
"They need to do major reductions of the cuts and pull logging roads
out of these areas," said McCrory.
The 1995 Conservation of Grizzly Bears in British Columbia Background
Report acknowledges that logging is a serious problem for bear
conservation, stating, "Grizzly bear management and forestry have a long
history of conflict in British Columbia."
"These two pilot projects will provide us with invaluable information
that will help to determine the formal designation of Grizzly Bear
Management Areas," Sawicki said.
Recently, Wildlife Act amendments were adopted to raise fines for the
most serious offences to a maximum of $100,000 and to allow the courts
to impose creative sentencing, including community service, posting of
bonds, payments to special trust funds or to cover the cost of remedial
or preventive action.
New provisions make it an offence to feed bears or to leave food, food
waste and other substances with the intent of attracting them.
The government's efforts to reduce bear-human contacts are a valuable
part of the plan, said Erica Mallam, a bear biologist working with the
Valhalla Wilderness Society. "The situation is critical for grizzlies
right now. They are listed as vulnerable, but we still allow hunting on
top of bears being poached and killed as nuisance bears."
There were 1,600 grizzly and black bears killed as nuisances in British
Columbia in 1998.
"It is giving the public a bad message that bears are so expendable,"
said Mallam.
Sawicki said the primary goal of the strategy, adopted in 1995, is to
"maintain in perpetuity the diversity and abundance of grizzly bears and
the ecosystems on which they depend throughout British Columbia."