Statement on proposed southwestern Alberta Grizzly hunt

C. Davis photo

Timberwolf Wilderness Society / David Mayhood press release

A recent proposal to reopen a sport hunt for threatened grizzly bears in southwestern Alberta is misguided (Calgary Herald, Debate emerges on grizzly bear hunt, February 18, 2013).

Grizzlies continue to be at risk throughout Alberta, including the province’s southwest, and should not be hunted. Those bears are not Alberta’s to destroy; they continue to exist because of management actions in Montana, British Columbia and Waterton Lakes National Park. Rather than place at further risk a grizzly population that is still not secure, we urge Alberta to help it finally become self-sustaining by restoring long-lost protection to the Castle River Country for its uniquely high ecological value. That value includes seriously threatened, critical Grizzly habitat for this recovering international bear population.

Timberwolf endorses a recent proposal by wildlife ecologist Dr Brian Horejsi to use a small fraction of resource revenues to fund the necessary habitat acquisition and restoration work.

David Mayhood is a conservation ecologist and a director of Timberwolf Wilderness Society. Timberwolf is pursuing a legal claim to the Castle River Country on behalf of that ecosystem and its wild inhabitants.

Background


The single best predictor of long term persistence in vertebrate animal populations is population size. For a wildlife population to survive with high probability in the long term (let’s say 40 generations), a population of thousands of adult individuals is generally needed. The Calgary Herald article asserts that the southwest Alberta grizzly population is part of a large group of about 1100 bears apparently derived primarily from adjacent lands in Montana and British Columbia.

Certainly nothing close to that number resides now in southwestern Alberta, where the resident population has been estimated at no more than about 65 animals. Assuming that the larger figure is for adults only in the entire international population, however, we can estimate that there is in the order of a 65% chance that a present population of 1100 adults will survive for 40 generations.

These odds are approaching, but are not yet at, a realistic management target for restoring grizzlies. If the 1100 figure is for the total population, the adult population is substantially lower, as is the probability of persistence. If there are 300 adults, then there is just roughly a 42% chance that the population can persist more or less indefinitely.

These are not the odds one would like to see when the consequence of failure is the permanent local
extinction of such an iconic species, not just from that corner of Alberta, but from northern
Montana and southeastern BC as well. Montanans and British Columbians should be justifiably
concerned by Alberta’s proposed hunt.

Timberwolf Wilderness Society

The entire purpose of a recovery plan for species at risk is to rebuild wild populations to sizes that have a high probability of maintaining themselves with negligible additional help from us. We need to increase the population to a longterm self-sustainable size, which we can estimate very roughly as about 1500 adults for a 70% probability of persistence. (Others deem 2000-2500 bears 2 years old or more as the minimum viable population.) If the stated figure of 1100 grizzlies is correct and refers to adults only, we have at least one grizzly population that is within range of meeting this criterion. To set it back now by hunting it is just the opposite of what needs to be done. If, as seems far more likely, the 1100 figure refers to the entire population and the adult numbers are substantially fewer, then we have a long way to go before the grizzly bear population in southwestern Alberta can be considered reasonably secure over the long term. For that reason, the hunting ban in Alberta should continue.

To maintain the entire international Crown of the Continent population of which our southwestern
grizzlies are a part, we also need large blocks of roadless habitat. Southwestern Alberta holds
critical habitat for this population, but much of it is severely damaged under the province’s
multiple use policy of land management. The entire area is being severely degraded by logging, oil
and gas development, all-terrain vehicle use, grazing, mining, urbanization and the dense road
network that supports these activities. Road densities in particular are far in excess of what
grizzlies can tolerate.

The region of southwestern Alberta which might be called the Castle River Country suffers from all
of the above abuses, but still holds a large proportion of the remaining critical habitat for
grizzlies using that corner of the province. This region, extending from Waterton Lakes National
Park northward to the Carbondale River and eastward to the forest reserve boundary, was once part
of Waterton Lakes National Park. It needs similar protection again. Protecting and restoring the
ecological integrity of this small area would go a long way to assisting Crown of the Continent
grizzlies to achieve longterm sustainability. It would also greatly assist in restoring several
other vulnerable and at-risk species, and would protect an ecologically-unique landscape found
nowhere else in Alberta.

Wildlife ecologist Dr Brian Horejsi has recently proposed a realistic way to pay for the habitat
acquisition and restoration work Alberta needs. He suggests that the funds be taken as a
small levy on every barrel of oil exported from the province. Timberwolf endorses this idea, and
suggests expanding it to include a small levy on every resource extracted, including such other
things as natural gas, minerals, logs and grazing allotments. Much of the ecological habitat damage
is proportional to resource extraction, so total income for restoration would move up and down with
resource use.

See the following report for a complete analysis of, and independent view on these issues. Horejsi,
B. L. 2004. Grizzly bears in southwest Alberta: A vision and plan for population and habitat
recovery. http://www.ccwc.ab.ca/files/HorejsiGBReport.pdf