BC Politics with Hubert Beyer

VICTORIA – "No less reprehensible than the slaughter of African elephants for their ivory is the hidden scandal of Canada’s grizzly kingdom under siege by chainsaw and gun."

Thus warns the Raincoast Conservation Society in a recent report on the grizzly bear population that depends for its habitat on the rainforest valleys of British Columbia’s central and northern mainland coast.

"Ecologically catastrophic effects of clearcut logging are driving these old-growth-dependent monarchs from their homes in one coastal valley after another. Logging and over-fishing are reducing their principle food source – salmon. And the coastal grizzlies face an additional threat as hunters and poachers continue taking their poll," the report says.

The society accuses the government of doing little to preserve British Columbia’s grizzly population or worse, hastening its demise.

"British Columbia’s grizzly bear population is headed for extinction due to the combined pressures of clearcut logging, trophy hunting and bureaucratic indifference," the report says.

The Rainforest Conservation Society’s report admits that last year’s dedication by the B.C. government of the Khutzeymateen Valley as a grizzly bear sanctuary was a commendable move, but adds that the area is too small to preserve the local population of grizzlies.

B.C. Environment Ministry figures suggest that about 3,000 grizzlies should have come out of hibernation last spring. That estimate has changed little over the last 20 years, and the Raincoast Conservation Society the figures are way off base.

"Actual counts were never conducted, but we believe that an unstable population closer to 1,000 grizzlies may survive on the entire west coast," the report says.

Aside from logging and licenced hunting, poaching is the most serious threat to grizzlies. Following an RCMP sting operation last year, 60 bear paws were seized in a raid, and 29 charges were laid against 11 individuals and businesses for trafficking in and possession of bear gall bladders.

One man was fined $3,500 for possession of 33 gall bladders, hardly a deterrent when grizzly gall bladders can fetch thousands of dollars in Asia.

The report claims that government policing is virtually non-existent. "On the entire central coast, one or two conservation officers were in the field a total of three days in 1994. It falls to guide outfitters themselves to report kills and sightings that make up official data on bears."

One of the society’s directors is Peter McAllister, and I should tell you that I’ve been less than kind to him in the past.

It was McAllister who told the European Parliament some time ago that despite government initiatives to increase the province’s park land from six to 12 per cent, British Columbia was still the "Brazil of the North."

At the time, Stephen Owen, then chief of the now disbanded Commission on Resources and Environment, just happened to be in Europe and was able to also get a hearing before the European Parliament and set the record straight.

Yes, McAllister is a rebel, even by mainstream environmental movement standards, and yes, I’ve tanned his hide on several occasions for his all too frequent and irresponsible outbursts, but the Raincoast Forest Society’s fears of a dangerously declining grizzly population is shared by many other environmentalists who are less radical than McAllister.

In a nutshell: I’m willing to listen to his concerns, and if the government has conclusive evidence that McAllister is wrong, I’d like to see it.

The last word goes to the Raincoast Conservation Society: "History has taught us that we rarely come to the rescue of a species until it’s too late."