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SCIENTISTS SAY GOVERNMENT POLICIES FAIL TO PROTECT B.C. GRIZZLY BEARS

Conference attendees recommend end to clearcutting, roadbuilding and hunting in intact rainforest valleys

VANCOUVER, B.C. - 12 May, 1997

Scientists attending the first-ever conference on the status of B.C.'s coastal grizzly bears announced today that government policies and industrial activities are threatening the viability of grizzly bear populations, a species which is already considered vulnerable to extinction by both the B.C. and Canadian governments.

The group also reviewed current and proposed government policies and concluded that the B.C. government is making decisions with far-reaching implications for bears and salmon, based on little or unreliable data. Hunting and non-hunting mortality data, and baseline studies on bear populations and the effects of logging on salmon/bear interactions are woefully inadequate.

The 22 conservationists and scientists concluded that, until it can be clearly demonstrated that the ecological integrity of the ecosystem can be guaranteed, it would be prudent to place a moratorium on clearcut logging, roadbuilding and hunting in B.C.'s intact rainforest valleys. They recommended that large bear sanctuaries with connecting corridors be created, along with an overall increase in protection of bear habitat and streams used by wild salmon, which are the coastal grizzlies' most critical food source.

A recent study shows that already in B.C. and the Yukon 142 salmon stocks have been lost, and 702 runs are now at high or moderate risk of extinction. Said Dr. Lance Craighead, the scientific coordinator of the Montana-based American Wildlands, "The record of logging practices in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest clearly demonstrates that clearcut logging of old-growth forests reduces or destroys salmon runs and the bear populations that rely on them. We've seen this movie before and it doesn't have a happy ending."

Added Dr. Barrie Gilbert, a senior scientist at Utah State University, "Continuing loss of healthy salmon stocks will be the death knell for robust grizzly populations, and be catastrophic for both human subsistence and likely the productivity of the rainforest. The rainforest watersheds would lose the fertilizing effect of dead salmon, so important for these productive ecosystems."

There is a strong correlation demonstrated between coastal bears, their reliance on salmon as a food source and their use of low- elevation temperate rain forest. However, of the original 353 large rainforest valleys that once existed in B.C., only 69 coastal valleys are still intact. Based on an analysis of current logging plans, more than 20 of the 43 remaining valleys on the central coast are scheduled to be roaded or clearcut in the next five years.

Dr. Brian Horejsi, a wildlife scientist with a background in the impacts of industrial activity on large mammal populations, said, "The extensive clearcutting of entire valley-bottom rainforests has serious negative consequences for bears that use these habitats and salmon streams; no forest cover means no security."

ANALYSIS OF B.C. GOVERNMENT POLICIES INTENDED TO PROTECT COASTAL GRIZZLY BEARS

May, 1997

The government of British Columbia recognizes the grizzly bear as a species that is vulnerable to extinction and has placed the grizzly on its Blue list of threatened species. In order to abate the threat facing B.C.'s grizzly population, the government introduced a number of pieces of legislation with regulations that were meant to alleviate pressure on threatened species and guarantee the protection of biodiversity. After several years, a number of these legislative mechanisms have still not been introduced and the others are wholly inadequate to provide assurance that the grizzly population will not continue to decline.

FOREST PRACTICES CODE

Although the Code provides five mechanisms by which species with critical habitat requirements can be protected, to date the government has failed to exercise any of these. These mechanisms are:

None of the five innovations promised by the Code to improve the protection of endangered species, wildlife and biodiversity from the harmful impacts of logging have been implemented. The Code has placed the need for guaranteed fibre flow above the needs of wildlife protection. For example, the Code will not be allowed to impact cutting levels more than 6 per cent of the current rate of cut: forests needed to protect grizzly bear habitat in land-use plan guidelines must come out of this 6 per cent.

To sacrifice sustainability to maintain fibre flow targets is inconsistent with the principles of conserving intact ecosystems and preventing species decline and extinction. As the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel concluded, "the flow of forest products must be determined in a manner consistent with objectives for ecosystem sustainability."

ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT

Neither the federal government nor the provincial government has introduced an Endangered Species Act. The federal government developed draft legislation that applied to only four per cent of Canada's landbase (1.1 per cent of B.C.'s landbase), which was criticised by the environmental community as failing to provide sufficient protection for threatened species. The government of B.C. has yet to introduce an Endangered Species Act. The provincial designation of the grizzly being a Blue listed species is virtually meaningless, because no formal mechanisms are in place to reduce hunting or protect habitat.

GRIZZLY CONSERVATION AREAS

In June 1995, at the time the Forest Practices Code was introduced, the government of B.C. promised to set aside non-hunting conservation areas for grizzly bears, separate of the landbase set aside under the Protected Areas Strategy. Almost two years later, not one grizzly Bear Conservation Area has been set aside.

GRIZZLY BEAR CONSERVATION STRATEGY

The B.C. Government Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy is, on the surface, a positive template to protect grizzly bears in the province of B.C., but has serious flaws that defeat its well- intentioned objectives. The first concern is the lack of adequate scientifically-proven guidelines for logging in habitats used by Grizzlies. At a time when the government is allowing our forests to be drastically overcut, the Strategy also disallows a timber cut reduction that would be necessary in order to protect key grizzly habitat. Similarly, the Strategy lacks a program for large bear sanctuaries that prohibit both human development (such as logging or mining) as well as hunting. Accumulatively, these policies will result in grizzly bears suffering habitat loss as well as population declines across the province.