A controversial change to Alberta’s Wildlife Act is allowing for grizzly bears to be hunted, even though they are labelled a threatened species.
Now, a provincial wildlife group is calling foul — saying it will do more harm than good.
The amendment allows for the hunting of grizzly bears who are either involved in a human conflict or found to be living in “areas of concern.”
Devon Earl, conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA), says even though it may have been made with the goal of improving grizzly conservation, and preventing human-wildlife interactions, it could actually allow grizzlies to be hunted an unsustainable rates.
“It could apply to anywhere that bears and people are in the same place and people, of course, have been expanding into bear territory a lot over the past decades, so people are coming into contact with bears a lot,” she said.
Hunting grizzlies has been banned in Alberta since 2006, but Earl says as this is allowed once again, it could open the bears up to trophy hunting, even though there are only about 900 in the province as of 2021.
She fears this could be extremely harmful to Alberta’s grizzly population, especially since they reproduce so slowly.
Another concern, the AWA says, is the lack of public consultation leading up to the change.
“The hunt is such a controversial issue and it’s something that people care a lot about and would have wanted to have a say in,” Earl said. “These bears are so special to people and people care about having them on the landscape so they have a lot of value outside their value for hunters.”
CityNews has reached out to the Minister of Forestry and Parks for comment on the decision.