Alberta moves to save threatened grizzlies

For almost a decade, conservation groups have fought to have the iconic grizzly bear designated as threatened in Alberta, fearing the population was at dangerously low levels.

But even as Sustainable Resource Development Minister Mel Knight announced Thursday the grizzly was now considered a threatened species in Alberta, some argue the designation doesn’t have strong enough legal teeth.

The continued suspension of the grizzly bear hunt also isn’t a given, and even the threatened designation doesn’t preclude the province from reopening a limited hunt for the bear some time after next year — a possibility one critic calls "ludicrous."

The author of a recent grizzly bear report, which says the province has not done enough to help grizzlies recover, points to the far stricter measures in the United States to deal with animal populations in trouble.

Jeff Gailus says laws there put legal obligations on governments to identify and protect the habitat of endangered species and citizens can take authorities to court to force them to follow recovery plans.

"Unfortunately, in Canada, we don’t have any such legal requirement," Gailus said. "It does leave much of the species at risk protection up to the whim of the Parliament or the legislature or even the particular minister responsible."

Like other conservationists, Gailus greeted Alberta’s grizzly bear designation as good news, and said it does show a commitment to helping the species recover. But he also said it’s just one step in a process to raise grizzly numbers in the province.

Thursday’s announcement was made by Knight based on a recommendation from the Endangered Species Conservation Committee. The committee first recommended the grizzly be designated as threatened back in 2002. The province ignored that advice.

But with the results of a massive DNA population study now in hand, the province has forged ahead with the designation.

The hunt for the bear has been suspended since 2006. That suspension continues into 2011. But next year, the province will reassess the hunting ban from the point of view of individual management areas, Knight said.

Officials will look at the grizzly bear recovery plan to see at what point a hunt may or may not resume. And legislation doesn’t mean a threatened species in Alberta can’t be hunted, Knight said.

"There are circumstances where those things can coexist and I don’t take issue with that," Knight said. "In different wildlife management units, perhaps things will progress diff erently."

But the possibility that a hunt could be opened for a threatened species is "ludicrous" according to NDP critic Rachel Notley. Declaring the grizzly threatened in Alberta is just "window dressing" and won’t oblige the province to do more than they are right now, she said.

"Alberta really has one of the weakest protection regimes in place and what we do have we’re not enforcing properly," she said.

But Knight said recovery efforts have been underway for a number of years, including the BearSmart program, which educates the public in methods to reduce conflicts with grizzlies.

The province has already started working with industry to decrease intrusion and roads into grizzly habitat, Knight said, and to educate Albertans not to use some of those roads for recreational activity.

"Whatever is required of the government to continue to have that species in the province, we’re prepared to do," Knight said.

The DNA analysis found 691 of the bears live in the province, and Knight said between 350 and 400 of those are of breeding age. Scientists, he said, would like a breeding age population of about 1,000 in Alberta.

At the heart of conservationist concerns about the grizzly bear in Alberta is road access into habitat created by oil and gas and forestry industries, and then used by the public.

Conservationist Nigel Douglas, with the Alberta Wilderness Association, welcomed the news the province has designated the grizzly as threatened. But he cautioned the designation in itself doesn’t benefit the bears directly.

"It’s all about access," Douglas said. "Grizzly bears need secure habitat to go about their lives, go about being grizzly bears. Alberta has too much motorized access to allow them to do that."

rcuthbertson@theherald. canwest.com

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Threatened In Alberta

– Threatened: A species likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed.

– Endangered: A species facing immediate extirpation* or extinction.

– Other threatened species in Alberta: the peregrine falcon, western silvery minnow, trumpeter swan and northern leopard frog.

– extirpation: A species no longer existing in the wild in Alberta, but occurring elsewhere in the wild.

Source: Government of Alberta