GRIZZLY BEAR : it's up to Parks Canada
Updated October 29, 2007
Alberta – "a massive failure of management"
- In 2002 the Alberta Government’s Endangered Species Conservation Committee recommended the grizzly be listed as “threatened”. This should have immediately halted the annual spring grizzly hunt.
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- In 2002 the Grizzly Bear Recovery Team was formed by the Alberta Government to develop a plan for conservation of grizzlies in the province.
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- This team of 15 stakeholders and government employees identified hunting, poaching and self-defence as the main sources of grizzly mortality.
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- Not until spring 2006 after intense pressure from conservationists and the Alberta public did the government implement a three-year moratorium on grizzly hunting in Alberta.
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- Although the government refuses to release an estimated grizzly population count until final DNA sampling is complete, indications are that there are probably less than 500 grizzlies left in the province.
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- According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) a population below the 1,000 mark should be listed as “threatened”. Below 500 it should be listed as “endangered”.
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- October 19, 2007 – Alberta’s Minister of Sustainable Resource Development, Ted Morton, announced he had completed the review of the Draft Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan but there is no new funding to implement the plan at this time.
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- Although the grizzly hunting moratorium will continue through 2008 there will be no government decision on a “threatened” status until more population data is available – also at the end of 2008.
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Alberta's mismanagement of this iconic species has brought calls for urgent action from scientists and wildlife activists for the government to strengthen and implement its draft recovery plan that has been sitting on the shelf for more than two years.
Dr. Steven Herrero, grizzly specialist with the University of Calgary, wrote in 2006 "The grizzly bear is a threatened species in Alberta and should be immediately so designated. A major, committed and broadly conceived program will be necessary to bring about recovery."
Calling it a “massive failure of management”, grizzly expert, Dr. Brian Horejsi, advocates protecting the grizzlies’ habitat, reclaiming some development and continuing the 2006 moratorium on the spring grizzly hunt. Only these measures may stave off extinction facing these bears.
Local and national conservation organizations want a scientists’ report outlining core grizzly habitat areas released now to the Grizzly Bear Recovery Team and the public. To make up for the five years of lost time they are asking the government to quickly establish three wildland parks encompassing core grizzly habitat long known to be important to the bears’ future and which have already gone through various assessment and review processes.
It is ludicrous for the government of Alberta - the richest province in Canada - to say there is no funding available to implement the Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan.
If the government has the will to implement its plan, recovery of the grizzly is still possible. In the Yellowstone area of the US state of Wyoming the grizzly population has doubled over the past 30 years due to a recovery plan that has focused in part on keeping road densities low and protecting enough core habitat throughout the recovery area.
Access management is the key to recovery. Not only Alberta but also Parks Canada should recognize this.
Alberta won’t give them the space. Parks Canada must
Depending on the final Alberta population figures, Jasper National Park with 120-150 grizzlies could be home to possibly one third of the total for the whole province. This makes it incumbent on Parks Canada to do everything possible to protect the species.
Grizzlies must have room to move, to find mates and to reach traditional feeding areas. The females must have secure, undisturbed areas in which to raise their cubs.
Unfortunately this is not the case in the park:
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eleven have been killed on the Canadian National Railway and three on the Yellowhead Highway in the past 25 years (see item Roads and Rails)
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In the Maligne Valley, Parks Canada is allowing a large increase in staff accommodation and later operating hours which will lead to increased nighttime traffic in high-quality grizzly habitat
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Marmot Basin downhill ski area. In spite of Parks Canada assuring the public in 1999 that no summer use was either "proposed or contemplated" at the downhill ski area, the possibility of it was introduced into the Jasper National Park Management Plan six months later. The hill is used by grizzlies during the summer season and the 10 km road to Marmot runs through grizzly habitat. Parks must reject any such demand from the ski hill.
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In the congested Athabasca Valley, a marked increase in the number of unofficial trails cut by mountain bikers and hikers is facilitating human access into wildlife corridors and fragmenting critical grizzly habitat.
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For further information on the plight of Alberta grizzly bears, go to http://www.grizzlybearalliance.org
