Grizzlies may be safe in the den, but protection decision still looming

Don’t get caught napping while grizzlies sleep: speak up now!

Wildcanada.net Action Alert
Thursday, October 14th, 2004

High above the valley floor, on a steep side-hill protected from the winter winds, a female grizzly digs out the entrance to her winter den site. Her powerful shoulder muscles heave clumps of fallen dirt and stone from the hollow as her cubs, two years old and nearly as big as she is, swat each other in the golden light of autumn. Soon these bears will retire to this site for a winter of deep hibernation, their heart rates falling to a few beats per minute, their breath coming once every 45 seconds, their bodies miraculously recycling waste material into muscle. They will not wake for four or five months.

What you and I do right now will determine what fate they wake to.

While Alberta’s roughly 500 bears hibernate, temporarily secure from highways, railways, new recreational development, and sport hunting, the Alberta government will make a critical decision. Will Alberta’s grizzly bears be protected, or will we continue to push them towards the brink of extinction?

Wildcanada.net has a plan for protecting grizzly bears in Alberta, but we can’t do it without you.

The decision to allow another legal sport hunt next spring, and whether to list the grizzly as threatened in Alberta, will be made while the grizzly bears sleep. We on the other hand, can’t be caught napping. Please take action at www.wildcanada.net/grizzly-alberta to remind Alberta Premier Ralph Klein and Minister of Sustainable Resource Development Mike Cardinal they must take responsibility in ensuring Alberta’s grizzlies survive and are protected. Use your own words to tell the Premier and Minister Cardinal why you think Alberta’s grizzly bears should be protected.

You can contribute to Wildcanada.net’s effort to protect grizzly bears in Alberta, and across Canada using our secure online server by clicking here.

Taking these actions is just the first step. We need to do much more. In the next week we’re going to tell you how we plan to protect Alberta’s grizzly bears, and we’re going to ask you to help us do that by becoming much more involved in Wildcanada.net than many of you have been in the past. Many of Wildcanada.net Network Participants are going to get an envelope in the mail from us that we want you to read and respond to. We need your help now more than ever.

Over the past year, Wildcanada.net has been leading the fight to stop the grizzly bear sport hunt in Alberta. With an estimated 500 bears on provincial lands in Alberta (according to Alberta Government specialists), what happens to the population of grizzly bears in this province will foretell the fate of bears elsewhere in Canada! In order for the population to begin to reach a healthy state, there needs to be at least 1000 mature breeding bears. It is irresponsible for the Alberta Government to continue to tell the public that research on population numbers and density is necessary, without also following a precautionary approach to management.

Grizzlies are still being killed on our highways and railways, pushed out of critical habitat such as in southern Alberta’s Castle Crown Wilderness, and killed for sport by folks who don’t seem to grasp that this species is threatened with extinction. Alberta Government scientists and committees have recommended the suspension of the hunt and listing the grizzly as a threatened species under the provincial Wildlife Act, which could allow the grizzly bear population time to stabilize, and the Alberta government time to create and implement an appropriate management and recovery plan.

In the next couple of weeks many Wildcanada.net Network Participants will receive a package in the mail from Wildcanada.net outlining the challenge we face right now to protect Alberta’s grizzly bears, and explaining what we hope to do together to protect them. When you get this package, please read it and respond.

Last spring, we were able to turn up the heat on the grizzly issue with the “500 calls for 500 bears” campaign, generating over 2,000 phone calls into Premier Klein. The Alberta Government was forced to shorten the hunting season, issue fewer hunting tags, and close several areas to hunting. Next year, we want to look forward to no grizzly bears being killed for sport.

When spring comes, the mother grizzly will emerge from her den, her cubs nearly grown. She may shoo them away so that she can mate again, or she may allow them to spend one more summer at her side, roaming the yet wild valleys of Alberta’s Eastern Slopes. What we do now, while she sleeps, could very well determine her fate, and the fate of her cubs.

We need your help to continue this fight. Take action now at www.wildcanada.net/grizzly-alberta. Use your own words to tell Premier Klein and Minister Cardinal why you care so much about protecting grizzly bears.

	Don’t get caught napping: Take action to continue the fight to protect Alberta’s grizzlies. Take some time to learn more about grizzly bears. Tell a friend, a colleague, your child, about the threat they face and what can be done to help. Contribute to the campaign to stop the grizzly bear hunt.

	Disappointing decision on Kananaskis On Friday, October 8th the Minister responsible for Parks in Alberta, the Hon. Gene Zwozdesky, released the Management Plan for the Evan Thomas region of Kananaskis Country, an area 45 minutes west of Calgary, and the heart of the Kananaskis Valley. The new plan will allow for the expansion of Nakiska Ski Resort, the development of a summer use program on the ski hill, and for the development of three small lodges in the Evan Thomas area. The upshot is that some surrounding lands will be added to the Bow Valley Wildland and Spray Valley Provincial Park. These lands, however, are not threatened by development as the Kananaskis Valley is. The Evan Thomas region of Kananaskis Country has been identified as one of two most important regions for grizzly bears in the 4,200 square kilometer Kananaskis Country. The other, the south end of the Spray Lakes reservoir, was protected in the late 1990s as a provincial park, thwarting massive development plans there. Wildcanada.net is disappointed that the Minister didn’t simply say no to development pressure from a small number of businesses, and from his own Conservative cabinet. Please send a message to Minister Zwozdesky and to Premier Ralph Klein expressing your disappointment with the outcome of this 9-year process. Take action at www.wildcanada.net/kananaskis.

All images copyright Wildcanada.net & John Marriott