BC auditor takes aim at inadequate management of grizzly populations

VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – British Columbia’s auditor general says the biggest threat to the province’s grizzly bear population is not hunting but loss of habitat.

“I mean the hunt is definitely quite emotional, and it’s a policy discussion… We just are pointing out that it’s only one component.,” Carol Bellringer says.

In a report, Bellringer says expansion of communities and in industries such as oil, gas and forestry makes it more difficult for grizzlies to find food, raise their young and results in increased human-bear conflicts.

She makes 10 recommendations, including reviewing legislation to clarify the management and protection roles of the forests and environment ministries to reduce overlapping responsibilities.

She says the Ministries of Environment and Forests, Lands and Resources are both trying to manage the bear’s habitat and neither really knows how succesful their efforts are.

“There’s a lot of attention being paid but it needs to be done with a better plan and with a greater attention to the results and determining whether or not they’re effective.”

Bellringer’s report says government has not fulfilled commitments to a bear management program in the North Cascades area in BC’s southwest and concludes there’s an absence of province-wide grizzly monitoring and inventory strategies.

She says grizzly populations are increasing in some areas of BC but that is likely occurring independently from an adequate government management plan.

The New Democrat government has promised to adopt all the recommendations, which mostly involve developing a management plan.

An estimate 15,000 grizzlies call BC home, but Bellringer says it’s unclear how accurate that number is, because of historic gaps in the management framework. The NDP government has already announced a ban on grizzly bear trophy hunting something that kills about 250 bears a year.