Listen to an audiocast of Dr. Faisal Moola on CKNW radio station with Michael Smyth https://tinyurl.com/kese42a discussing the need to protect British Columbia’s Grizzlies. Dr. Moola explains why continuing on with the Trophy Hunt is only threatening the species further and is not a good conservation strategy for the BC government to maintain when up to 90% of B.C. residents are opposed to the trophy hunt.
Excellent interview and excellent callers …no commercial interruptions: https://tinyurl.com/kese42a Bears Matter Sends a Big Bear Hug and Thanks to Dr. Moola for doing this interview on behalf of our bears.
Please share interview on facebook and twitter etc… and consider signing and sharing Bears Matter petition : https://www.change.org/petitions/protect-grizzly-bears-by-banning-the-trophy-hunt-in-bc
Twitter Msg: NOT ProtectingBCGrizzlies! Fri @faisal_moola w @MikeSmythNews on @billgood980 @christyclarkbc #bcpoli @BCGovNews itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/bil… David Suzuki Foundation news release
March 5, 2014
B.C. government gets failing grades in grizzly bear management
The B.C. government’s failure to effectively manage grizzly bears has left nine sub-populations on the verge of extinction and is leading to widespread overkilling of bears, a report (report link) by the David Suzuki Foundation has found.
“The B.C. government gets failing grades for its implementation of the 1995 Grizzly Bear Strategy on almost every measure,” said the foundation’s Faisal Moola.
The peer-reviewed report analyzes whether the B.C. Grizzly Bear Strategy is sustaining bear habitat, preventing overkilling of bears by humans, maintaining the abundance and diversity of bears and increasing public and scientific knowledge of grizzly bears. The strategy has guided grizzly bear management in the province since it was adopted in 1995.
The study includes a report card, which found that although progress has been made in developing more accurate population estimates (grade: C), increasing scientific knowledge about grizzly bears (grade: B) and improving public awareness of the species (grade: C), little has been done to implement the conservation strategy to protect grizzly bear habitat (grade: D-) or prevent overkilling of bears, including in the province’s controversial trophy hunt (grade: D).
“Grizzly bears have suffered from political indifference and inaction for too long,” Moola said. “B.C. is one of the last places on earth where grizzlies feed, breed and roam across our forests and mountains, but we’re abandoning this biological inheritance with management practices that don’t work and, worse, threaten the health of the species.”
The government was given a D grade for its inability to maintain the abundance and diversity of grizzly bears. Although about 15,000 grizzly reside in British Columbia, research shows that abundance and diversity — including genetic diversity — appear to have declined since the strategy began. No recovery plans have been implemented for B.C.’s nine threatened sub-populations, two of which scientists have deemed extinct: the Garibaldi-Pitt and North Cascade grizzlies, which once inhabited the Lower Mainland’s forests and mountains.
Although the B.C. government claims its trophy hunt is well-managed, research cited in the report finds that with the hunt, grizzly bear mortality has not been managed below sustainable thresholds. Grizzly bear deaths at the hands of humans have exceeded government thresholds – often for consecutive years – in some bear populations, including those in the southeast corner of the province. The Cariboo and Kootenay districts have recently reopened for trophy hunting.
The foundation’s report follows findings by the federal government’s Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) that the majority of grizzly bear habitat in the province is “at risk” and that the species should be legally listed and protected under federal endangered species legislation.
Threatened bear populations can rebound if the government moves quickly to protect habitat, develops recovery strategies and puts a moratorium on the trophy hunt, Moola said.
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