Penner says no end to grizzly bear hunt Barry Penner - Environment Minister

Limited-entry hunting of grizzly bears will continue in B.C. as long as the bear population can sustain it, according to B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner

Penner was speaking at the annual convention of the B.C. Wildlife Federation in Prince George on Saturday. The hunting of grizzly bears for trophies is highly controversial and multiple environmental organizations have called for a ban on the hunt.

“There is an ongoing campaign... about whether grizzly bear hunting should be permitted,” Penner said. “My message is always the same: ‘we’re making decisions based on science.’”

According to the Ministry of Environment’s Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy, a 1990 estimate put B.C.’s grizzly population at 10,000 to 13,000 – about half the remaining North American population.

Prior to colonization of the Americas, approximately 100,000 grizzlies roamed North America from northern Mexico to southern Manitoba to Alaska. Now the grizzly’s range is limited to B.C., Alaska, the Yukon, parts of Alberta and northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Loss of habitat is one of the major contributing factors to the bear’s population decline.

“There are something in the order of 4,000 grizzlies on the North coast,” Penner said. “We expect about 15 to be hunted. The population can sustain that.”

In 2000 the previous provincial government banned the grizzly hunt, Penner said, but the ban was overturned. Penner called the ban a ploy to, “appeal to voters in the Lower Mainland,” rather than serious conservation.

Penner urged members of the B.C. Wildlife Federation, an organization of hunters, anglers and sportsmen, to speak out about their views to the media.

“If you want to maintain your right to hunt, you need to speak up once in awhile,” he said. “We all have to speak up and respond when confronted with misinformation.”

Hunting and fishing are important contributors to the economy, he added.

“Freshwater fishing contributed nearly half a billion dollars to our economy in 2009,” Penner said. “(And) we all know that the more people get outdoors and recreate outdoors, they more they take an interest in maintaining that for the next generation.”