Is this the last year for the grizzly bear hunt?

[scooter]

Those morons at AWA seem to think so...

Join us to celebrate steps towards protection of Alberta Grizzlies

Albertans, Canadians and people from around the world are celebrating a small victory in the effort to protect the grizzly bear today. Though today marks the opening of the grizzly bear hunt in Alberta, we believe that because of your support and your effort, this may very well be the last grizzly hunt before it is suspended. We continue to urge the Alberta Government to list the grizzly bear as "threatened" under the provincial Wildlife Act. They cannot ignore their own science and citizens for much longer.

Wildcanada.net wants to thank-you for the extraordinary outpouring of support you have given Alberta's grizzly bears during this very intense two month effort. Your voices have been heard. Today we are celebrating all of you who have spoken out for the protection of Alberta’s grizzly bear.

Since Wildcanada.net, along with the Grizzly Bear Alliance and the Alberta Wilderness Association, began the campaign dubbed “500 calls for 500 bears” on February 10th, 1,204 people have emailed us to say they picked up the phone and called the Office of the Premier on this issue. Another 2000 faxes have been sent to the Premier protesting this spring’s grizzly hunt. You should be very proud of your contributions to this worthy effort. We are!

We feel that we're one step closer to meaningful protection of Alberta's threatened grizzly bears. The activities of the last 2 months, since the Klein government announced the hunt on February 2nd, will make it difficult for Alberta Premier Ralph Klein to not protect this species. But to ensure this happens, we will need your voices, your support and your passion again.

What Comes Next?

Today is the first day of the next phase of the campaign to ensure that the grizzly bear is protected in Alberta. Now with the hunt underway, we are focusing attention on the government's own Endangered Species Conservation Committee's recommendation that states the grizzly bear should be listed under the Wildlife Act as threatened, requiring development and implementation of a recovery plan for the grizzly. The grizzly bear has been affected by industrial and commercial development like logging, oil and gas development and mining, direct kills on our highways and railways, along with the impacts of hunting.

We will need your support and effort again over the next year. Wildcanada.net will be sitting down with other conservation leaders in the next few weeks to plan our efforts. We'll be certain to keep you apprised of our progress, and provide you with plenty of opportunity to voice your passion for grizzly bears.

My sincere thanks to all of you who took the time to call, write and donate. Your courage in voicing your deeply felt beliefs has been an inspiration to the Wildcanada.net team.

My warmest regards,


Stephen Legault
Executive Director
Wildcanada.net



Discuss.................................

[T-man]

Although I am not much of a bear hunter, I acknowledge the role that hunters play in managing wildlife. A few years back while I was living in BC the then in power NDP party suspended the grizzly hunt in order to win votes for the upcoming election. If memory serves me correctly it lasted for 2 years. I can remember hunting Elk in the Kootenays after two years of no Grizzly hunting. We were seeing multiple bears every day in the drainages we were hunting. It was easy to tell the younger bears had no fear of us, 2 1-2 year olds put a stalk on me and my buddy while we were out on a point glassing up two valleys. The one started coming up from one side about 400yds away, we were about to back down the other when my buddy noticed another one waiting at the bottom of our escape route totally fixated on the two of us. Made for one hell of a hike back over the top. We figured they were a pair of twin cubs recently run off by their mother.

I guess the point I'm making is that if the hunt is suspended the number of people/bear encounters are going to increase, an increased number of problem bears will have to be destroyed. Had those two bears pushed their luck chances are my buddy and I would have had to shoot them. Luckily for the two of them we are ethical hunters who believe in an appropriate balance and did everything we could to avoid the encounter.

Lets all hope the hunt doesn't get suspended and start doing something about it. Write the premier, demand hard concrete scientific evidence. Pressure them into making decision based on what is best for the proper management of these animals and not what is best for politics.

A little long winded I know fellas, sorry just sick of knee jerk reactions based on unfounded/unscientific evidence put foward by a people who work in an office all day who's idea of the great outdoors is a walk along the Bow River in downtown Calgary.