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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.
<http://www.straight.com  By Andrew Findlay
Publish Date: June 26, 2008
The Zodiac glides along the water, nudging up against the bank of a river that flows into the heart of the Fiordland Recreation Area on the central coast. The passengers step out and wade through a lush estuary blossoming with purple lupines and knee-deep in Lyngby’s sedge, a favourite springtime food of coastal grizzlies. Here and there, the fertile alluvium is freshly overturned where a grizzly has clawed the ground to uncover succulent silverweed roots. A quick scan of the broad floodplain with binoculars reveals two grizzlies methodically eating their way along the forest’s edge, their distinctive shoulder humps shimmering with blond-brown fur. Camera shutters click furiously.
More and more foreigners are paying top dollar for the opportunity to see a magnificent grizzly in the wild. British Columbia, though, still permits the sport killing of an animal that is highly evocative of what remains of our wilderness and is regarded as a keystone indicator of ecosystem health. Last year, a record-setting 430 grizzlies died for sport, for animal control, or from poaching, yet the complex science used by government to establish hunting quotas remains at the heart of one of the most controversial wildlife-management issues in Canada. That’s why environmentalists, First Nations, and bear-viewing companies believe the province is risking international shame over the hunting of grizzlies, considered by the federal Species at Risk Act, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, and the B.C. Conservation Data Centre to be a species of special concern.
A recent public-opinion poll that says most British Columbians—73 percent—want the provincial government to end the hunt is adding fuel to the controversy. The poll was commissioned by Pacific Wild, a nonprofit group started last year by Ian McAllister after his split from the Raincoast Conservation Society, an environmental group he helped found more than 15 years ago.

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Governors’ talk on habitat lacks teeth

By JOEL CONNELLY
P-I COLUMNIST

June 15, 2008

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By Associated Press

WASHINGTON(AP) - Officials from northern Canada were in Washington on Monday to make an unpopular argument: Let U.S. hunters continue to kill polar bears for sport.

The politicians from Canada’s Northwest Territory asked Interior Department officials to allow U.S. sportsmen to still bring back polar bear hides after their hunts in Canada’s Arctic region, despite the increased protection now afforded the bear under the Endangered Species Act.

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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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