Alberta Wilderness Association calls for 5-year suspension on grizzly bear hunt

CALGARY – The Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) is asking the Alberta government to once again suspend the hunting of grizzly bears to protect the threatened species.

Alberta’s spring grizzly hunt was stopped for three years beginning in 2006 but since that it has been suspended on a year-by-year basis.

No decision has been announced for 2011.

AWA is asking the province for the hunt suspension to be extended for a further five years at minimum.

“The fact that Alberta even considers hunting its endangered species each year is startling,” says Nigel Douglas, AWA conservation specialist.

“Even if the bears get a reprieve this year, it is frustrating to know that this “˜Will they? Won’t they?’ game is going to be played out next year and the year after that and year after that.”

Grizzly bears were designated as a threatened species in 2010.

AWA says grizzlies in Alberta continue to die at an unsustainable rate due to factors outside of hunting, including motorized vehicle access to their habitat. An estimated 29 bears died in 2010, equalling approximately 4.2 per cent of the total population in Alberta. According to the province’s 2010 report, Status of the Alberta Grizzly Bear in Alberta, a 2.8 per cent mortality rate is considered “˜sustainable.’

AWA says allowing the grizzly hunt will make an already difficult problem even worse.