Sat 29 Dec 2007
Almost 80% of the Earth’s surface has experienced a sharp fall in the number of large mammals as a result of human activities, a study suggests.
By examining records dating back to AD1500, US researchers found that at least 35% of mammals over 20kg had seen their range cut by more than half.
Wed 19 Dec 2007
| Larry Pynn |
| Vancouver Sun |
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Massive commercial power developments are being considered for existing and planned conservancy areas on the B.C. coast, raising doubts about a landmark multi-stakeholder agreement designed to bring peace and economic certainty to an area known as the Great Bear Rainforest.
“Premier Gordon Campbell is completely going back on his promise to protect this coast,” charged Ian McAllister, the award-winning author and conservationist who coined the term Great Bear Rainforest and who now works under the banner of Conservation Pacific.
Fri 14 Dec 2007
A cadre of eco-tour entrepreneurs say grizzly watching could be B.C.’s next big tourist bonanza. The province wants to promote bear hunting instead. The argument on both sides hinges on a simple question: What’s a bear worth?
photo by Patrice Halley
Jasmine Loh parks a half-sized school bus at the end of a dirt road and stares through a scrim of cedars toward the far shore of the creek. “Okay, let’s go,” she says quietly, and holsters a canister of pepper spray. Another can of aerosol-fired cayenne stays in the bus as backup.
Five people clamber into a flat-bottomed aluminum boat, which Jasmine, in gumboots, then hauls to the opposite bank. The shallow water teems with spawning pink salmon. She returns and ferries the rest of our group across. Armed to our Gore-Tex hoods with high-end camera gear, digital video equipment and lenses the size of bazookas, we ascend a wooden ladder through the evergreen canopy and into a two-storey tree fort. Everyone jockeys for the best vantage. And then we wait.
Our group includes a 30-something couple from Australia, a pair of garrulous American retirees and a family of Brits with plummy accents and matching blond sons. All have paid several thousand dollars to travel to Glendale Cove, 250 kilometres northwest of Vancouver as the eagle flies, and stay in a floating resort anchored in the shadows of British Columbia’s steep-faced Coast Mountains. They’re not here for the scenery, however spectacular.
