I am surprised that nobody addressed this issue. The other day upon opening the Edmonton Journal , the bear study people call upon a grizzly hunting ban in Alberta, due to a sharp decline in population.

I just happen to live plumb in the middle of them and I see this as for what I think It is. An extension of the total closure of black bear hunts in Ontario.

I lived here for the last twenty years and I have to say I have never seen so many grizzlies in the last five years.
This statement is supported by outfitters and trappers in this area. The problem is basically the bear study, people themselves. I have in my library a book by Russel that is probably 40 yrs. old, and it describes grizzly studies done in the period that the book was written. So far, the studies of today do not reveal anything new. What they do however, is supply bioligist with a paycheque. i think the grizzly is the most overstudied animal in North America.

The bear studies that are done in Alberta are mostly done here around Hinton. Reason being, easy access to their territory by means of logging and mining roads. By means of bating bear traps these animals are lurred to these roads, not only that, there is numerous of repeated trappings of the same bears. This results in bears becoming like park bears, not afraid of human presence.
So in the last 5 years we see Grizzlies grazzing in the ditches like domestic cattle. It will be no surprise that cubs get killed by traffic. What is a surprise however, when the bear study people decide for the sake of comfort to put their bating stations in unofficial camping spots, furthermore increasing the chance of human encounter. (personal experience)

I addressed these matters last year in an article to the Edmonton journal because I felt that if there would be no response to this, things would become like the bear hunt in Ontario.

Well I think my sole letter did not have the desired effect, because there it is, a proposed ban on grizzly hunting.

Guns first, then hunting, then fishing.......
Regards Martin

It's not about the number of bears it's about the anti's making themselfs feel good. People are bad ,bears are good people should never harm wildlife. These people have no consept about the really world they think that all things are nice and if your just nice nothing bad will happen.The only thing I have to say to the anti's is F--K em.

I found your post very interesting as I worked for the Alberta Forest Service at Hinton during the fire seasons of 1991 and 1992, spending 5 months and 5.5 months on Athabaska Tower. I am a former member of the B.C. Forest Service, both regular staff and auxiliary and have more than 40 yrs. bush experience.

I am personally acquainted with several of the leading bear biologists in Canada and bears have been a major interest of mine for nearly 50 yrs. I was born and grew up in the West Kootenays and have lived(alone) for months on end in most of the really wild areas of B.C., I also have spent a little time in the bear country of Alaska and the N.W.T.

I think that your comments about bear biologists are a bit overstated as the ones I have known are far more concerned about the bears than about paycheques---most of these people make far less money per annum than a school janitor or unionized industrial labourer, even after 8-12 yrs. of university and 20 yrs. field experience.

I would point out that the outfitters that you refer to are definitely in it for the money, have you priced a sheep hunt recently? Or, is it o.k. for guides, outfitters and wranglers to make money but not for technicians and biologists?

Where, exactly do Grizzlies feed in roadside ditches? Is this along Highway 41 in the spring? This is the emergence habitat for the bears and has been for as long as we have records, the highhway and it's ditches were put into bear habitat, so, one sees them there, naturally.

The traps you mention are put into a variety of locations to determine bear movements and so forth. Those in campgrounds are put there to see if bears regularly frequent these areas; the data gained therefrom can be of tremendous use in managing the flow of human activity in said campgrounds. This means that the human use of these areas, which contributes heavily to the provinces exchequer, will not be curtailed except when humans are in danger from periodic bear presence. Humans killed by bears tend to not spend very much and their friends and relatives do not want to come to visit and spend either.

I am not opposed to Grizzly hunting if it is based upon scientific study, but, these animals ARE in serious difficulty in many areas of their present range. In certain small areas their populations may be increasing, I hunted in Gatho Creek, B.C. last September and there are too many Grizzlies there. The best way to deal with this is to first have an accurate scientific population-age-sex cenus and then to increase hunting opportunities on that basis.

BTW, I met Andy Russell and discussed bears with him more than 30 yrs. ago. He is a charming man, a hell of a story teller and a superb entertainer with a real skill in working a crowd. He has made a few dollars from his enjoyable books, their sometimes ficticious nature notwithstanding. One of the reasons he has done so is the fact that he stopped hunting Grizzlies many years ago and advocated their careful management in his books.

The biologists are not the enemy, PETA, bad governments and non-traditional immigrants in legislatures who do not care about hunting are the real problem.By castigating biologists and treating bears as dangerous vermin, as they were for so long, we play into the hands of the enemy, those who want to ban all hunting, IMO.

Hello:
This is another one of those Issues where emotionalism and stupidity get in the way of sound Wildlife management. As I recall, the recently completed East Slopes Grizzly study concluded that Alberta's Grizzly population was stable and slightly increasing. The Antis ignore this and wail about the fact that a relatively large number of Grizzlies {19] were killed this Spring and how this is going to deplete the population. By personal experience, and by talking to those who live in Grizzly country, I tend to agree with Martin. In the Area where I live, which is about 60km. east of the Rockies, we see ever increasing problems. Hell, there was one raiding garbage cans in Sundre last year. Then there was the almost 800 lb. boar shot 20km. north of Sundre, while raiding a granary. He had been relocated twice and the lady who shot him, feared for her kids. I believe the reason the Grizzly Kill is up is because we have more bears,than the available habitat can support and they are seeking out new territories. In a recent wail from some Canmore based group, they put out the blurb that once Grizzlies ranged as far as Winnipeg. The rest of their message was, please send money. I asked them and I ask you, do we really want Grizzlies in the Winnipeg subburbs again? On second thought, that might not be a bad idea.
I watched the recent CBC feature on the supposed poaching around Hinton and just shook my head. These guys just throw out numbers and besides the dramatization, they jump to conclusions out of the blue. They find a partial carcass of a bear and say catagorically he was poached, without any real evidence to support that conclusion. I get mad when I see this kind of Shit, as you probably can tell.
Grizz

If there is a shortage of grizzly bears in Alberta, it must be because they are all over in the Peace Country of B.C.! I have never seen so many sows with 2 year old triplets as this last fall. In the first hour of hunting out of a camp on the Gatho, I met with a G-bear chasing a cow and calf elk through the trees @ about 150 yds. away just as the sun was setting. Scared sh*tless would describe the feeling at the time. A horse had to be destroyed and then dragged away from camp out near the river and 4 different G-bears were on it that night.The accounts from guides (taken with a grain of salt) and from hunters being threatened by grizzlies were numerous. One account from an aquaintance told of a biologist sent to do a bear count and wouldn't let the pilot fly low as flying low in the mountains bothered him-- so much for accurate counts. But then we all know the numbers have nothing to do with any of it; it is all political pressure from the ignorant. For what it's worth.

Kutenay,you may be right as overstating it a bit but I learned that from the environment activist.
I like to point out that that biologist are important and necessary and I would be the last one to deny them a fair paycheck.

The outfitters are of cause out there to make money same as anybody else but they as well as the trappers and the park wardens (in the past) are more likely to be found in the back country and therefore have a better idea of actual numbers.
The number of hunting lic. given out was based on the info gathered by the fish and game dep. and the fact that we have good population of bears confirms that they did a good job.

When I say �the problem is the bear study people themselves� I am referring to the way these studies have be done because of budget limitations meaning placing the traps near road and camp sites not in the back country. and this way luring them to these places and thereby increasing the human encounters.

Example:1
HWY 40 I traveled this highway. for 20 years twice a day in the first 15 years it was the talk of the day at work when a Grizzly was seen on the way to work today you have to have seen at least 3 or 4 to get a willing ear.
Last summer,there is this little 4 wheel drive in campsite ( one the Government forgot to take and charge $15 per night for) camped there since time begun , drove in and found the bear study people removing the trap and bait.
I was told it would be ok because they trapped the bear yesterday tagged and released him.
A week later a friend of my was visited by a Grizzly at his campfire it would only leave after he fired the shotgun in the air and he of course was questioned about that by the Game warden .
In this stretch of highway there are 3 traps that I know of One :200y of a gravel road 5 miles of the Hwy Two: 150y from the Hwy.

Example:2
Traveling a gravel road leading up to Hwy.40 I stumbled on a 3 year old radio collared Grizzly it as just wandering down the road.
Me in my truck expected it to run in the bush when I came close ,I did not it just kept on walking in front of the truck until we hit the Hwy. there it decided to make a run for it across and was only saved by the braking ability of a on coming 3/4 ton.

Example:3
Seen on the CBC they are installing camera�s in Grizzly radio collars so we can have pictures of the landscape the bears are seeing when they travel,the bear�s will have to recaptured to remove the film however.

The moral of the story:

Here in Hinton we have been made out as redneck,shoot anything that moves,poching bear killers but the real question is who is doing the killing?

PS:
In closing:
Russel writes the Grizzly�s territory can be as much as a 100 mile rad They put a collar on the bear called Mary and tracked her all the way to Edson and back crossing Hwy.16 (Four lanes) 4 times roughly 100Miles

As far as hunting Grizzly's:I think,one bear per hunter is enough so if you shoot one better make it good ,also weed out the non hunters that buy tags so there is less tags available.


Regards Martin

I think that, over-all, we all agree on most of this and I am in favour of Grizzly hunting in any area, including National Parks, where bears are in sufficient supply or there are too many of them, Gatho Creek is one example.

I would be inclined to take the story about the fearful biologist with a pinch of salt, this sort of thing is commonplace in areas where everyone knows more than the RPFs and professional biologists about game. I have had a number of colleagues and friends killed while flying in the mountains on government resource management work, I have never seen one of us refuse to fly since I started in '65.Gatho Creek and area are "pussy" flying, try going into Alice's Armpit or Stewart in a 185 in a rainstorm or, try the Flathead or Valhallas on a nice, warm spring day over the glaciers.

The real problem is, of course, the lack of funding for wildlife management in both Alberta and B.C. and the assholes on the CBC who don't know their dicks from a popsicle stick about nature. I also know or knew the major prickhead, Suzuki, a liar, a racist and a hypocrite, every working pro biologist I've ever known despises this dork and I once offered to kick his ass in a bar in Castlegar, B.C. due to a snotty remark he made about "white people"; I'm sorry now that I didn't!

I am familiar with the range requirements of Grizzlies which vary sustantially due to limiting factors in a given habitat. I respect Andy Russell, especially for his conservation work, but, there are people out there who know far more about bears than Andy does. I also question his conclusions about Grizzly aggression toward humans, but, the old boy is certainly worth reading and really neat to talk to.

The situation concerning bears and campgrounds is a real bugger. For many years, Grizzlies were deliberately enticed into parks so tourists could view them, then, this became uncool. Now, they are attracted to parks and campgrounds by the mess left by "outdoorsmen"---Rock Island being one example. I think that the bears would come into the camping areas anyway under current conditions, thus, I favour the traps for reasons outlined in my initial post.

As far as the "rednecks" of Hinton are concerned, in 40+ yrs. of professional and recreational bushwhacking all over rural and wilderness western Canada, I NEVER worked in a town where the people were so friendly and generous to a stranger as in Hinton, Alberta, Canada, period. Who gives a shit what some dope-smoking, cappucino sucking faggot or lesbo from 'Frisco thinks anyway!

I recently read a report that there was less than 2000 grizzlies in Alberta?

If so, I don't think that much of a grizzly hunt would be viable.

However, I know absolutely fuck all about grizzly populations in Alberta, and the people that live in the area and are in the bush alot usually have a good idea about what is what..

Where we have grizzlies there seem to be no shortage of them. The province dosen't have a lot of habitat suitable for grizzly so we should never have the numbers B.C. has because the whole of B.C. is pretty much grizzly habitat. we just have the strip of mountains and foothill along the BC border and the boreal forest in the north. I think they are increasing and showing up in places they haven't been seen much in years. The wolves are increasing also moving farther out into the croplands all the time along with the cougars.

You know,I wouldn't mind seeing a lot more Grizzleys in Stanley park and in the wilds of Richmond. derf

In the last 4 years I've seen more and more griz. I've been hunting alpine for a around 15 years and lately I've been very alarmed. I went from seeing one every couple of years to a couple 4 years ago to this year seeing 11 in sept. I'm hearing this from quite a few other hunters too.

I hope I get my draw.

This is definitely the impression I have been getting, too. In fact, there were two Grizzlies shot in a suburb of my hometown, Nelson, B.C. last summer by the provincial C.O.s; this is an area that contains many small acreages owned by anti-hunting "environmentalists", many of who are self-styled experts on bears and anything else to do with the outdoors. They have fruit trees(without bear collars) and large, open compost heaps and they like to watch the bears attracted to these.

When the Grizzlies show up to demand their "share", they phone the COs, who shoot the bears because there is no money to re-locate them or, really, territory to put them in. Most of these "environmentalists" are involved with various quasi-governmental programns such as immigrant support, multiculturalism, daycare and so forth, all of which make it easier for foreigners to over-populate the best parts of Canada while taking the funding away from proper wildlife management programns---see the re-allocation of funds by the Clark and Dosanjh administrations here in B.C., if you don't believe me.

So, the Grizzlies suffer and the bloodthirsty hunter-bambi killer-redneck-white racists are to blame, the usual story.