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   Ian McAllister photo

Several years ago, the B.C. Liberal government lifted a ban on hunting grizzlies, but critics say the decision was based on faulty science.
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Hunting for grizzly bears
By Andrew Findlay
Publish Date: June 26, 2008

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Governors’ talk on habitat lacks teeth

By JOEL CONNELLY
P-I COLUMNIST

June 15, 2008

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Wall Street Journal

Face-to-Face With the Grizzly

Tours to view bears up close in the wilderness of British Columbia are on the rise By CANDACE JACKSON June 21, 2008; Page W3 Nekite Valley, British Columbia

No matter how scary it may look, our guide tells us, if a grizzly bear gets close, don’t run.

As we spot our first bear tracks in the mud later that evening, it’s clear that we’re in bear country now — and there isn’t much to run to. We’ll spend the next few nights in one of the most remote corners of the vast wilderness of British Columbia, a 40-minute seaplane ride from the nearest fishing village at a bear-viewing lodge built on a barge. In the mornings, we’ll rise early to look for the bears, trekking through grassy marshes and boating along shallow inlets in one of the few places where grizzlies still outnumber humans. Our guide is an unarmed biologist.

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Globe and Mail Article – Exclusive by Mark Hume    June 10, 2008Bear Matters Note: please vote for this article at bottom of page at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080610.wbcbear10/BNStory/National/home MARK HUME From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail

June 10, 2008 at 4:00 AM EDTVANCOUVER — Seven years after the British Columbia government lifted a moratorium on the sport hunting of grizzly bears, a growing number of people want to see the practice banned again.According to a poll to be released today, 73 per cent of British Columbians support an end to the trophy hunting of grizzlies, a substantial increase from the 52 per cent who were opposed in 2001, when the hunt resumed after the newly elected Liberal government overturned a moratorium imposed six months earlier by the NDP.“That’s a 21-point increase since the moratorium was lifted,” said Ian McAllister, director of a non-profit wildlife conservation group, Pacific Wild. “It was an unpopular decision when the government lifted the ban and it’s even more unpopular now.“The people of B.C. are generally more interested in the environment than they were in the past and I think we’re seeing that reflected in the increased numbers,” Mr. McAllister said of the poll, which was commissioned by his organization. “I think the message here is clear: Just ban the hunt.” Mr. McAllister said he hopes the poll, together with voter pressure during an election year, will persuade the provincial government to reinstate the moratorium.“People are getting frustrated over this issue,” he said. “The government has failed to protect grizzly bear habitat … and people are getting tired of hearing about bears being killed for sport.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:     

JUNE 10, 08 MEDIA CONTACT: IAN MCALLISTER, PACIFIC WILD, Email: info@pacificwild.org ( no affiliation or relation to McAllister Opinion Research) 

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http://commonground.ca/iss/203/cg203_suzuki.shtml

Bearing down on grizzlies

	SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki with Faisal Moola Years ago, I was surprised to learn that a grizzly bear is protected in the United States, but if it walks across the border into British Columbia, it can be killed for sport. So we did a program on them for The Nature of Things. I was amazed to see pictures from the 1800s of immense piles of skulls from grizzlies that were slaughtered to make room for early settlers on the prairies. Grizzlies were not just mountain animals; they flourished on bison all the way across Canada to Manitoba and south to Texas and California (where the only place you’ll find one now is on the state flag)! Grizzlies need space – tagged animals have been known to travel over hundreds of kilometres in a season. But the cumulative impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation from logging, mining, road building, urbanization and other land-use pressures have forced them into isolated patches of territory.

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Grizzly bear sighting confirmed on Island

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National Geographic features area

By Joni MacFarlane
Reporter
Friday May 02, 2008

National Geographic’s newest cross-border geotourism initiative featuring the Crowsnest Pass and Pincher Creek was unveiled on April 17 in Calgary.
Centered on the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, and featuring the Rocky Mountain and foothill areas of Alberta, B.C. and Montana, the initiative was undertaken to promote geotourism for a unique and special place identified as the Crown of the Continent. The region spans 42,000 square kilometres and encompasses five tribal and First Nation reserves and two World Heritage Sites.
The National Geographic and local partners, began gathering geotourism nominations from the public last year. This was used to put together a mapguide and an interactive website, which highlights the environmental and cultural heritage in the transboundary Rockies. The project represents a large collaboration between dozens of organizations including communities, tourism bureaus, conservation and business groups, educators, First Nations, government agencies and others working in the region.
Geotourism is defined by National Geographic as “tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place - its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the well-being of its residents.” According to the Travel Industry Association of America, 55-65 million Americans fit the category of eco-tourists or eco-travellers as they are sometimes called. This equals roughly six million Canadians. “The objective of the mapguide” is to showcase the region’s most unique points of interest and to tell the broader story of a remarkable landscape beyond borders,” said Jonathan Tourtellot, director of National Geographic’s Centre for Sustainable Destinations and senior editor for the map. “The Crown of the Continent is one of the most intact natural ecosystems in the temperate region of the world. This map tells the stories tied to this very special landscape.”

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GLOBAL WARMING: Conference would seek dissenting views.

By TOM KIZZIA
tkizzia@adn.com

Published: May 4th, 2008 12:03 AM
Last Modified: May 4th, 2008 02:43 AM

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Subject: [BCEN LW:] David Suzuki: Bearing down on grizzlies

Publish Date: April 29, 2008
http://www.straight.com/article-143761/david-suzuki-bearing-down-grizzlies
By David Suzuki and Faisal Moola

Years ago, I was surprised to learn that a grizzly bear is protected in the United States, but if it walks across the border into British Columbia, it can be killed for sport. So we did a program on them for The Nature of Things. I was amazed to see pictures from the 1800s of immense piles of skulls from grizzlies that were slaughtered to make room for early settlers on the prairies. Grizzlies were not just mountain animals; they flourished on bison all the way across Canada to Manitoba and south to Texas and California (where the only place you’ll find one now is on the state flag)! Grizzlies need space – tagged animals have been known to travel over hundreds of kilometres in a season. But the cumulative impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation from logging, mining, road building, urbanization, and other land-use pressures have forced them into isolated patches of territory.

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Bear Matters has permission to post recently submitted letters to Premier Campbell and Minister Penner by Biologist, Wayne McCrory, RPBio 

Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:31:30 -0700To:  “OfficeofthePremier, Office PREM:EX” <Premier@gov.bc.ca>From: Wayne McCrory <waynem@vws.org>Subject: Fwd: Coastal Grizzly bear no-hunting areas?

Dear Premier Campbell,

As you well know grizzly bear hunting is a very controversial issue in the province and that the European Union still maintains its ban on the import of grizzly bear trophies from B.C. Valhalla Wilderness has been active in conservation in B.C. including the B.C. coast for the past 30 years, starting with the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary. One of the successes of this habitat protection is that is part of a much larger grizzly bear no-hunting reserve from 1982. Two more such areas were proposed nearly two years ago, including a large one that encompasses some of the spirit bear conservancy areas.

A consultation process was started by the Ministry of Environment nearly 1.5 years ago but stalled out last year. I recently asked Minister of Environment Penner what was happening with these grizzly bear no-hunting reserves and he had not even heard about them. Please see my e-mail below. What are the province’s plans to implement these grizzly bear no-hunting reserves and why is the process taking so long? Sincerely, Wayne McCrory. Spirit bear project coordinator,Valhalla Wilderness Society.  Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:02:51 -0700

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Bad Hunting

Warning: this video is disturbing.

A plea to stop killing Haida Gwaii’s ‘trophy’ bears.

By Susan Musgrave
Published: April 24, 2008

TheTyee.ca

A sign, in Spanish, at the entrance to the zoo near my apartment in Cali, Colombia, read TAKE PITY ON THE ANIMALS. A groundskeeper explained to me why the sign had been posted.

“We had a bear once, he was a disappointment. He wouldn’t wake up unless you threw rocks at him. Then he would rear on his hind legs and roar.

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http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5g_JLyfMj8mPs7ZkL0ft122McQ7xw   CALGARY — Alberta will continue to suspend its controversial spring grizzly bear hunt into 2009 amid growing evidence that numbers of the iconic carnivore are significantly lower than earlier estimates.

But Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Morton won’t order a status review of the grizzly - which could see the bear listed as a threatened or endangered species - until a five-year official count is completed next year. “We’ll keep the moratorium in place until we get the numbers in,” Morton told The Canadian Press in an interview. An average of 14 Alberta grizzlies were “harvested” yearly until the province halted the hunt for an initial three-year period in 2006 in order to get a handle on how many of the bears still prowled its forests. Not only is 2008 the last scheduled year of the hunting ban, it is also the final year of a half-decade-long scientific survey that uses DNA from hair samples to count the province’s bears in five different geographical regions. And until the entire count is completed, Morton said he would not change the way Alberta classifies and treats its bears, despite being “sympathetic” to their plight. “I think the responsible approach is to wait for the research to establish the approximate grizzly bear population before implementing new policy,” said Morton.

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