Bear Matters BC

By Chuck Tobin

Plans for an exclusive wildlife viewing business at $2,000 US a day
were released Tuesday afternoon by Vuntut Gwitchin Chief Joe
Linklater and Premier Dennis Fentie.
The business plan was developed by the Vuntut Development Corp. in
partnership with a private investor.

It envisions 28 visitors a year to the Bear Cave Mountain area inside
the Ni’inlii’Njik (Fishing Branch) Ecological Reserve.
A place of cultural and archeological significance for the Gwitchin
people, the area has also been a focal point for wildlife researchers
intrigued by the closeness of the grizzly bear activity during the
fall months while the chum salmon are running.
Visiting the area provides one with a breathtaking experience,
Linklater told reporters and a large gathering of government and
corporation staff at Tuesday’s unveiling of the new business.
This year will be limited to two visitors and one guide, with a
gradual build-up over three years. There will never be any more than
four clients and one guide at the facility.

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Stuart Hunter, The Province
Published: Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Campground owners are being urged to be more vigilant after a black bear had to be shot by a conservation officer as horrified tourists stood nearby.

Crystal McMillan of the Ministry of the Environment’s B.C. Conservation Corps was with conservation officer Ben York when he was called to Bella Pacifica Campsite near Tofino at about 6 p.m. Monday after reports of a bear tearing a tent apart.

“The bear had been in and out of the campsite for several hours,” McMillan said. “He was behind one tent and he was actually pawing at it. The conservation officer shot him in the bush behind the site in a bit of a green space.

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click photo
By Chandra Wong
Peace Country Sun Writer
Friday August 25, 2006

Peace Country Sun — DAWSON CREEK – The four grizzly cubs grumble and growl at each other as wildlife rehabilitator Leona Green tosses them a snack of alfalfa pellets, allowing me to take a picture of these unique orphans.
click here for larger photo

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David Burke, Whistler Question, August 24, 2006

The carnage for home-invading bears in Whistler continued this week.

For the third week in a row, and fifth time this summer, conservation officers were forced to shoot and kill a bear that had entered a home in search of food — this one having entered a second-floor apartment in Nordic Estates.

Chris Doyle of the B.C. Conservation Officer Service said the incident occurred on Sunday at approximately 6:30 a.m. The bear, an adult male weighing approximately 225 pounds, is believed to have entered the residence by climbing a tree and walking across a roof, Doyle said. It was standing on a kitchen countertop eating when the resident encountered it.

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Rise in home invasions by bears demonstrates RMOW garbage regime’s inadequacies: biologist
By David Burke, Whistler Question, August 24, 2006

The escalation of bear problems in Whistler this summer points to the need for municipal officials to scrap the community’s waste collection system in favour of one that can reduce bear problems to a manageable level, a leading B.C.-based bear expert said last week.

Local bear expert Sylvia Dolson said she supports the conclusions of Wayne McCrory, who completed a bear hazard assessment for the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) two years ago, but recognizes the need to build support for a new system, starting with a pilot project in one neighbourhood.

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Tuesday 22 August 2006
Another female grizzly bear was transplanted to the Cabinet Mountains on Thursday, with hopes of augmenting that area’s imperiled bear population. Last fall, state and federal wildlife officials transplanted a bear to the Cabinets for the first time in 15 years. With recent evidence that transferring bears will lead to successful reproduction, the state intends to be more aggressive with its augmentation program. “We would like to do two this year,” said Jim Williams, regional wildlife manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “But we might not catch another female the entire summer that meets the criteria. We are being very selective.” The state is only willing to transfer young female bears that have no history of conflicts with people. In Thursday’s case, it was a “clean bear” no older than 3 that was trapped on the Swan Mountain Range west of Hungry Horse Reservoir as part of population trend monitoring research.

Bear management specialist Erik Wenum used a satellite phone to notify Williams, prompting a consultation with other officials that led to the decision to move the bear. Under the supervision of Wayne Kasworm, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bear biologist, and Jerry Brown, a state wildlife biologist, the 140-pound bear was fitted with a radio collar and hauled to the Little Spar Lake area in the West Cabinet Mountains. It was released there Thursday night. The release was carried out without a hitch in the same area where last fall’s release occurred, Brown said.

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Lori Pappajohn, Burnaby Now
Published: Tuesday, August 22, 2006

BURNABY - A black bear is living in Burnaby Lake Regional Park — a little odd for an urban setting.

But Burnaby was once a wilderness, and black bears were a common sight.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Burnaby was bear country, says historian and author Jim Wolf.

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The creation of a “bear group” by local villagers in Russia’s Far East will ward off any potential polar bears that come too close to town.
© WWF-Canon / François Pierrel

Related Links

More on polar bears
WWF polar bear tracker
WWF-Russia
WWF International Arctic Programme

21 Aug 2006
Vankarem, Russia – In an effort to reduce human-wildlife conflict in Russia’s northeast, locals are taking matters into their own hands to control polar bear populations.

Local people from the coastal village of Vankarem in Chukotka, Russia’s farthest northeast region on the shores of the Bering Sea, have created a unique “bear group” with support from WWF-Russia to patrol and monitor polar bears during their winter migration season, which lasts from September to January.

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Jim Pissot, for The Calgary Herald

Published: Friday, July 07, 2006

If Bob Dylan’s album, Blood on the Tracks, had included his famous refrain, “the answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,” he could not have penned a more apt prediction of when the Canadian Pacific Railway might take meaningful steps to stop killing grizzly bears in Banff National Park.

In the past five years, CP Railway trains have killed four grizzly bears, including three females. None of the five cubs orphaned when their mothers were killed have survived to adulthood. With nine dead bears on their corporate record, the Canadian Pacific trains now are the number one cause of human-related grizzly bear mortality in Banff National Park. This year got off to its bloody start in early June when a young black bear was killed on the tracks in adjacent Yoho National Park.

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Home break-ins, complaint calls up sharply

Clare Ogilvie, The Province, Monday, August 21, 2006

WHISTLER — Christa Vandeberg knew there was something amiss as soon as she saw the garbage strewn around the front of her ground-floor suite.

But she was stunned when she opened her Upper Spring Creek front door and found fruit debris, torn open pasta packages, and bear scat in her home.

“I never would have thought that leaving open the window a slight amount would have enticed [a bear] to come actually into the house,” she said at the weekend.

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Bear Friends,

Again sad news to report from this past early Weds at 12:30a.m. in Capilano Area of North Vancouver (I believe). I was given a verbal account by our Park Ranger and the Bear Response Officers at our monthly Wednesday meeting of the North Shore Black Bear Network that our 6th bear was trapped and then later that morning killed by officials.

This young, healthy male bear (perhaps 3yrs old) was thought to be responsible for a break and enter earlier in the week and then for destruction of a garage door in efforts to get at contained garbage.

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By Nicole Fitzgerald, Pique Newsmagazine, August 17, 2006

For the first time in Whistler’s history, a human was injured after encountering a black bear.

At approximately 3 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 13, a 24-year-old male encountered a black bear trapped in the entranceway of a rented home located on Archibald Way in Alta Vista.

Attractants played a role in the situation with a report of five large green garbage bags and three small grocery store bags of household waste stored in a room off the entranceway.

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by G. Leona Green, Hillspring Wildlife Rehabilitation Facility, Dawson Creek BC
The Pine River, born in the Rocky Mountains in the Pine Pass, meanders for many kilometres through still and peaceful valleys, deep canyons and stands of ancient timber. It finally spills into the “Mighty Peace” at Taylor Flats. The Pine is a fast flowing, gravel bottom river with many backwaters and muskegs. A few farms and ranches scattered along her way and the town of Chetwynd depend on her for life-giving waters.

Grayling, Rocky Mountain whites, Bull trout, Dolly Varden and Rainbow trout are just some of the fish who thrived in her waters. Moose, deer, elk, black and grizzly bears, martin, mink are some of the many animals that lived there also. The beavers had numerous ponds along her as well. Her valley hosted songbirds of every imaginable species, waterfowl by the hundreds and under every one of her many bridges, swallows built their little mud nests.

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Once-scenic Wolverine Valley home to B.C.’s latest coal mine

Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Mike Caisley looks at the devastated mountainside — a thriving forest a few short months ago, now being dismantled one truckload at a time — and acknowledges the “mixed blessing” that is inevitably associated with a booming local economy based on the revival of northeast coal mining and exploration.

Caisley is in a tricky position. He’s mayor of Tumbler Ridge, a modern community of 3,200, just 25 kilometres away, that is debt-free thanks to almost a quarter century of coal mining.

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Cost of Coal: Health Impact

Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Kenny Sheen is not the sort of person to remain quiet. Not with the chainsaw he uses to carve life-sized wildlife from wood. Not when it comes to spouting his opinion.

Mention coal mining, though, and Sheen suddenly chooses his words carefully.

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