Future of Bears
Last Review/Updated: May 24, 2002
Bears in Alberta have benefited from management and research by a variety of provincial and federal agencies and by efforts of universities, public organizations and individual citizens. Governments, industry and hunters continue to fund much of the research while wilderness and environmental advocates remind us of our wildlands responsibilities.
However, major issues regarding the long-term management and security of bears remain to be addressed. For example, as the scenic Eastern Slopes are developed, will there always be permanent and secure places for the grizzly? Here, primary objectives of management are the identification and protection of habitats that provide bears with seasonally important foods, denning areas and travel routes. To address this question, the Eastern Slopes Grizzly Bear project, funded by a wide variety of cooperators with diverse interests, is a promising beginning.
The future of bears is importantly linked to our management of garbage, our willingness to consider natural ecosystems along with development, our regulation of human traffic in wildlands, and to our control of mortalities, including those from hunting. Concerted and organized efforts that consider the complex of needs of bears and other wildlife are necessary. Learning to coexist in harmony and enjoyment with truly wild bears is a challenge to all Albertans.
The best kind of management for the privacy-loving bears might be no management at all. Because most of their remaining habitat in Alberta has in some way been modified by human use, proactive plans are clearly in the interests of all. Planning for future wildlands and wildlife will help ensure a positive future for bears and ultimately will assist us in living with animals of our northern forests and western mountains.
"Coexistence should come to mean that bears and people jointly use some of the same environments but, to the greatest possible extent, that bears live without exploitation of our foods. Mutual avoidance, which in human terms means mutual respect, is a desirable end state. We need a sort of standoff between bears and people rather than the petting, feeding, and garbage eating that have characterized the past in some of our parks. If we can learn to live with bears, especially the grizzly, and if we can learn to accommodate the needs of bears in their natural environment, then maybe we can also find ways to use the finite resources of our continent and still maintain some of the diversity and natural beauty that were here when Columbus arrived."
—Stephen Herrero, Bear Attacks
T. Berezan photo
Suggested Readings and Technical Reports
