CALGARY — As the province works to update its grizzly bear recovery strategy, a debate is surfacing on whether to resume a hunt — at least for problem bears in southwestern Alberta.
The Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan 2008-2013 was implemented after studies found there were fewer than 700 grizzlies left in Alberta, leading the province to declare the species threatened.
But the population of grizzly bears in southwestern Alberta appears to be healthy.
With conflicts between bears and humans on the rise, it’s leading to a debate on how to best manage the situation.
Ranchers say it’s time to resume the hunt, which was suspended by the province in 2006, to deal with the problem grizzly bears.
“With the current situation, it’s really hard for the Fish and Wildlife officers to deal with them,” said Tony Bruder, a rancher near Twin Butte in southern Alberta. “They can’t just put them down.
“We have to come up with more options for dealing with the problems and ... one of those options is a hunt.”
Conservationists, however, argue it’s too early to say whether the species has recovered enough.
“Opening the hunt wouldn’t be appropriate until the target populations of the recovery plan are achieved,” said Katie Morrison, conservation campaign director for southern Alberta chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
Experts suggest the numbers in southern Alberta are higher than initially thought as it’s become clear that grizzly bears from Montana and British Columbia move freely throughout the area.
“From my perspective, since the recovery plan has been adopted and the change in status, there has been a whole bunch of things that we’ve learned that we didn’t know before,” said Gordon Stenhouse, research scientist and program leader at the Foothills Research Institute’s grizzly bear program.
Since the plan, he said, a lot of time and effort has been put into determining the number of grizzly bears in the province.
“In some areas of the province, we know that things aren’t bad,” he said. “In other areas, we think that things aren’t good.”
Stenhouse said research has determined that southern Alberta is doing well.
Recent statistics show there are about 1,100 bears in the Crown of the Continent area, which includes southwestern Alberta, B.C.’s Flathead and northern Montana.
“There are more bears in that group than there is in the rest of Alberta,” said Stenhouse, noting the science supports what ranchers are noticing in terms of conflicts. “This is a change; this is something new.
“Therefore, if the recovery plan was being redone or started today, they would have this new information with which to help make decisions.”
For its part, the province says it’s in the process of updating the strategy.
“The plan would be to have a revision ready and operational by early 2014,” said Nathan Webb, carnivore specialist with Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development.
Although he doesn’t anticipate any major changes, he said it will “certainly reflect a lot of new information and research that has come in since that last recovery plan was developed.”
Webb said the possibility of a hunt could be considered if the conditions laid out in the plan are met.
“There’s a series of things that would need to happen,” he said, explaining that includes an active program to reduce conflicts between grizzly bears and people, as well as a way to reduce human-caused grizzly bear mortalities.
There has been some success with programs such as BearSmart, which provides provincial funding to help landowners deal with problem bears.
Yet, 15 grizzly bears were killed — by poachers, motorists and landowners — across the province in 2012.
In addition to the 700 grizzlies in Alberta (on provincial lands), there are about 60 in Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks. Another two grizzly deaths were reported in the mountain parks last October when two yearling cubs were hit by a train.
Of the 15 grizzly bear deaths on provincial lands in 2012, all but one was human caused: one problem bear was destroyed; five were killed in self-defence; four were hit on roads; two were poached; and two were mistaken for black bears. One death was ruled as an unknown cause.
Webb said they would only consider resuming a hunt once all of the criteria are met in various parts of the province.
“Specifically regarding that southwest population, which is connected to Montana and B.C., the U.S. and Montana are discussing delisting grizzly bears in certain locations and that might be one of them,” he said. “So that could all become part of an international effort to manage that population.”
Wildlife managers in the northern Rockies have been laying the groundwork for trophy hunts in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Although the recent information is pointing toward the possibility of another hunt in Alberta, at least one expert said he doesn’t see it happening anytime soon.
“I think it would be a political hot potato that no minister in his or her right mind would touch with a 10-foot pole,” said Mark Boyce, a University of Alberta biologist who also sat on the grizzly bear recovery team. “It would create international attention and it would be a tough one to pull off.”
cderworiz@calgaryherald.com
http://www.vancouversun.com/technolog ... r+hunt/7980342/story.html
