Well, folks, the Alberta government is at it again, stirring up controversy like a hungry bear in a honeybee hive.
On June 17, a ministerial order under Section 53 of the provincial Wildlife Act quietly lifted the 18-year ban on hunting grizzly bears in Alberta.
This change wasn’t ‘publicized’ until June 29 (the Saturday of the Canada Day long weekend), when it was published in the Alberta Gazette, a government publication that doesn’t exactly make the rounds at the local coffee shop.
When some intrepid sleuths finally noticed the change buried over 300 pages deep in the document on July 5, the news spread like wildfire among wildlife specialists, and soon enough, the media and the public caught wind of it, forcing Smith’s government to respond.
Now that the cat’s out of the bag, we thought we’d delve into the details and reasoning behind this decision to open up hunting for grizzly bears, a species still considered ‘threatened’ in Alberta.
What Does the Act Allow?
The new Act allows the hunting of grizzly bears involved in human-bear conflicts or bears in “areas of concern” (a term not clearly defined in the Act) as long as they don’t have young and wildlife officers authorize the kill.
The hunters will be selected from a pool created by Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen.
To get authorized to kill grizzlies, a person must be an adult living in Alberta with a recreational hunting license. They must apply to the Minister to join the pool, and if chosen, they must be on-site within 24 hours of being notified. The Minister’s authorization will include the hunting area, allowed times, and permitted or prohibited methods and equipment.
According to the act, a human-bear conflict is when a grizzly bear gets used to people or their food and becomes a danger to people’s safety.
It can also mean if a grizzly bear has hurt or killed farm animals, damaged someone’s property, or hurt or killed a person.
Wildlife specialists and the government’s own biologists are calling this move “a reintroduction of grizzly hunting” in Alberta. But Minister Loewen sees it differently.
He views the program as a wildlife management tool that will create a pool of Alberta residents to act as “public wildlife management responders.”
Loewen capped the number of bears involved in the program each year at 15.
Why The Change?
The Alberta government’s rationale for this change is to “protect Alberta families and communities, visitors and agricultural producers.”
Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen, who also co-owns a company providing guided hunts, said, “We are taking a proactive approach to help Albertans coexist with wildlife… These changes demonstrate our commitment to ensuring Albertans can safely work and recreate throughout the province.”
According to a Ministry spokesperson, eight people have been killed by grizzly bears, along with 62 maulings since 2005.
Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson,“ chimed in support, saying, “Losses suffered due to predation can be a significant blow to ranchers and farmers.”
Are Bears Really a Problem?
Critics question the government’s claim about the extent that grizzlies are a problem.
Minister Todd Loewen recently told the press that the annual average has been about 20 grizzlies killed per year from negative human interactions.
Marco Festa-Bianchet, a Universté de Sherbrooke biologist, wonders where the government got those numbers from.
Festa-Bianchet has 40 years of experience in large mammal ecology and conservation and authored the province’s 2010 and 2022 grizzly bear recovery plans. Interestingly, the government has yet to release the 2022 plan to the public.
“This notion that there are 20 bears euthanized per year – that’s like 10 times more than what’s actually happening,” said Festa-Bianchet. “Is he mixing in black bears? Is he making that up? I have no idea where that number comes from because it’s certainly not the information I had when I wrote the status reports.”
Data pulled from the province’s own open government portal shows lethal removal of problem grizzly bears by agency control accounted for 25 bears destroyed between 2009 and 2018, averaging about 2.5 euthanizations annually.
Festa-Bianchet said, “It’s a hunt that is disguised as defending Alberta families against these ‘mean’ bears.”
Sarah Elmeligi, Banff-Kananaskis MLA and a bear biologist herself, said of Loewen, “He’s fear-mongering Albertans and painting this picture that there’s also these bloodthirsty grizzly bears running around the landscape, killing people and eating things, and that is, frankly, just not the case.”
Support for the Hunt
Support for the grizzly hunt comes not surprisingly from some–but not all–ranchers and trophy hunters.
Mike Walter, a rancher who lives in the Spring Point Hutterite colony near Fort Macleod, supported the government’s decision after nearly two dozen of their sheep were slaughtered by grizzly bears last May.
“If they’re killing livestock, you should be able to shoot them,” Walter said, noting that wildlife officers did relocate the bears that attacked his sheep.
Another rancher, known as @chadtosh6831 on social media, wrote, “As a rancher, I say good thing they open it back up; we’ve got way too many of them up here right now in northern Alberta. Once bears become used to people and livestock, they are a danger to everyone.”
Some Albertan hunters, like Greg Crosland Jr, president of the Athabasca Fish and Game Association, are also happy about the change, “I’m super, super excited that this opportunity will be back for Albertans… I think it would be very positive to take out some of the bears in question that no longer have a fear of man.”
Opposition to the Hunt
Opposition to the hunt has been widespread and growing, with critics arguing that the province changed the Wildlife Act without public consultation or listening to the recommendations of its own biologists or independent bear researchers.
Critics, like Exposed Wildlife Conservancy, also question the involvement of non-professional hunters in doing the work of professionals. They worry that some people will purposely habituate bears so they can trophy-hunt them.
Banff-Kananaskis MLA Sarah Elmeligi, a bear biologist and former parks planner, also criticized the move.
“As a bear biologist myself, it is clear to me that this decision by the UCP government is not informed by science or scientific data; the approach of shooting your way out of wildlife management challenges is archaic and needless,” she said in a statement.
Jim Pissot, former executive director of Defenders of Wildlife Canada, has worked with ranchers along the eastern slopes of the Rockies to reduce grizzly bear and wolf predation.
Pissot criticized the Alberta government for “passing the buck” onto the public instead of enacting responsible wildlife management and directly helping farmers and ranchers.
“Now people are being asked to do the kind of work that the province and Fish and Wildlife officers should be doing themselves,” he said. “The bottom line is, [Forestry and Parks] is understaffed and underfunded, and I think it’s preposterous to essentially deputize trophy hunters to respond to grizzly bear episodes.”
Conflict of Interest?
Minister Loewen’s continued involvement with trophy hunters is also raising eyebrows.
“This seems like a short-sighted decision intended to appease Minister Loewen’s ties to the guide-outfitting and trophy hunting industries and lacks any public integrity,” said Exposed Wildlife Conservancy’s co-founder John Marriott.
“A UCP minister is choosing to serve himself and his friends rather than Albertans who have spoken in support of grizzly bear recovery time and time again,” said Elmeligi.
Sneaky Changes?
One thing that unites Albertans is that they don’t like the government making big changes without public consultation or at least getting people’s opinions on an issue.
This grizzly bear hunt is another change the Alberta government has made that appears to be more self-serving than in the best interests of Albertans or effective wildlife management.
Having the public takedown ‘problem bears’ seems like it will create more problems than it solves.
The government’s decision to unilaterally change the Wildlife Act without consultation and against the views of its own biologist is typical of its approach lately: shoot first and ask questions later.
As always, we encourage you to stay informed and make your voices heard on the issues that matter to you.
