Lauren MacGillivray, CanWest News Service
Published: Thursday, July 27, 2006

KANANASKIS, Alta. — Grizzly bears across Alberta and southeastern British Columbia could be suffering from harmful levels of stress due to disruptions of habitat, says a team of University of Calgary researchers.

A crew of six students has been comparing satellite images of grizzly terrain to conditions on the ground, creating the most detailed map of its kind in Alberta.

So far, the findings reveal a rapid pace of land development that’s closing in on grizzly turf.

“Seeing the change first-hand, it’s startling how much there is out there in terms of cutblocks and well sites,” graduate student David Laskin, 28, said Wednesday at the University of Calgary’s Kananaskis Field Stations. “It looks like a checkerboard.”

The concern is that bears that must dodge humans, or whose habitat is broken up by roads and other developments, may not be as healthy as bears that roam freely. That could mean effects like fewer cubs being born.

The research is part of a multidisciplinary project that began in 1999. This year, an additional $4 million in funding has been committed through 2011 by the provincial and federal governments, and companies such as Petro-Canada, Shell Canada and Talisman Energy.

U of C geography professor Greg McDermid has been involved since 2003 and is leading this year’s group of students.

“If you live in Calgary and drive to Banff occasionally, you have no idea what’s going on in public lands,” he said. “The amount of oil and gas development and new roads and cutblocks is unbelievable. There’s 30,000 new oil and gas well sites going into the province in the next year.”

David Pryce, vice-president of Western Canada operations for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said the industry is doing its part.

“Clearly we need to have access to get at the resource, so we need to find ways to minimize the access needs, and that’s the integrated land management planning process,” said Pryce.

There are an estimated 700 bears in Alberta.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006