Coming into view of the Albertan Rockies is striking: the mountains are sharp and towering while the valleys stretch on forever. The creeks that run alongside the road are as wide as rivers and the bulging rivers look more like tidal waterways. That big and wild appearance is a front though, hiding the demise of the last remaining harbingers of a place’s true wild character: the grizzly bear.
Only the southwestern edge of Alberta is covered in these mountains — the majority of the province is plains — but 200 years ago, some say Alberta was home to more than 9,000 grizzly bears. That’s changed, and today, the best estimate is about 700, though no one knows for sure.
The decline has been associated with westward expansion. As more people came to live and work on the plains, the animals were pushed west. Neighboring British Columbia still has ecologically viable grizzly bear populations, possibly as many as 17,000 animals total, but Alberta’s grizzly population is right at that spot where arguments over numbers and population health are hard to quantify and tougher to prove.
Canadian conservationists have been pushing for years for the provincial and federal governments to embark on a recovery program, something similar to the one that helped Yellowstone National Park’s grizzly bear population rebound. But their efforts have mostly been ignored by conservative lawmakers and a conservative population that doesn’t share the sentiment that the bear is endangered or even worth saving.
Without the support of political leaders, the bear doesn’t stand much of a chance of recovering. That’s why the recent political decision to temporarily halt a grizzly bear hunt is a monumental shift in the effort to provide recovery support for the bears. It offers hope that more help is on the way.
The hunt was postponed for three years while biologists conduct a more accurate population count. Once officials have a better idea of how many bears are left and where they are living and roaming, they will re-evaluate whether to reinstate the hunt. The hunt itself may not have meant much in terms of the grizzly bear population: last year, hunters killed 10 bears while 12 were killed due to accidents or because they were “problem animals.” But as Jeff Gailus says in his Western Perspective column, the decision to postpone the hunt finally shows that the provincial government has acknowledged the situation.
“Alberta has really stepped out of the dark ages,” Defenders of Wildlife Canada executive director Jim Pissot told Bloomberg.com. “It has finally admitted that grizzly bears are in trouble.”
During the next three years, while biologists conduct their study, provincial leaders have pledged more money for outreach and education about the bear populations. Politically, momentum in favor of recovery may have shifted, if only slightly, but politics is really only part of the problem.
Energy development and the fate of habitat
Technically, the problem that the grizzly bears face in Alberta is a loss of habitat. As American grizzly bear recovery experts learned, these creatures need an incredible amount of undeveloped room to roam, without roads, clearcuts, housing developments or mining or drilling operations. Of all of these threats, one, the energy industry, currently poses the biggest.
Alberta produces 70 percent of Canada’s oil. Last year alone, the industry bought the rights to develop energy on 9.5 million acres and added almost 17,000 new wells to the province. In late March of this year, industry counts showed there are almost twice as many drilling rigs operating in Alberta as there were at the same time last year.
During the last century, energy development, logging and home construction have reduced the grizzlies’ habitat by two thirds to about 77,000 total square miles. That’s a square area with sides about 277 miles long.
Energy development in Alberta, which includes oil, natural gas and oilsands, is showing no signs of slowing down. Revenue from energy development helped push the region’s surplus to more than $7 billion last year, and is expected to do the same this year. Much of that revenue came from land sales. Some predict the industry may bring in $14.3 billion in energy revenues between this and last year.
Meanwhile, Alberta’s Energy Minister said the province’s oilsands contain enough oil for centuries, and he urged Canadians not to worry about the United States draining away the country's oil supply. And those supplies are being eyed by President Bush as one alternative to Middle Eastern oil.
If the United States keeps up its current pace of consuming as much energy as Canada can produce for it, grizzly bear habitat in Alberta is likely to suffer — hunt or not. But, maybe by curtailing the hunt, Alberta leaders have finally accepted that the bear’s population is in danger, and that will entice them to take a look at ways beyond ending the hunt as a solution.
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The number of grizzly bears in Alberta is estimated to have fallen from more than 9,000 two centuries ago to around 700 today.
