Guide Outfitter Acquisitions

If you can’t beat them, join them.

In an unprecedented move, Raincoast purchased a 24,000 sq km Guide Outfitting Territory in 2005 to end the commercial trophy hunting of grizzlies, black bears and wolves. We plan to do it again in 2010.

One of dozens of newspaper, billboard and bus shelter ads that Raincoast ran to stop the grizzly hunt.

For over a decade, Raincoast has been at forefront of efforts to end the BC grizzly hunt.  Despite building a groundswell of public support and achieving short-lived bans and closures, we have not leveraged the long-term change for wildlife management we have been seeking. And neither the B.C. government nor the official opposition support a province-wide or even coast-wide, ban on grizzly hunting.

For grizzlies and wolves to persist in their existing coastal range, they require expanded conservation efforts.  Moderate progress has been made on habitat protection, but a significant amount of key grizzly habitat was not protected in the conservancies announced as part of the GBR deal (see GBR deal, Wayward Course or Critical Review for the shorting comings of habitat protection). Further, most of the new Great Bear conservancies allow grizzly hunting.

Grizzly Bear Management Areas (GBMAs), which offer local hunt closures, are a step in the right direction,  but they too are generally small, fail to capture the best habitat, and have short-comings that render them inadequate for long-term protection (see GBMA report for details).

The need for a new approach

Clearly, Raincoast needed a different strategy.  In an unprecedented move, we purchased one of BC’s largest Guide Outfitting tenures – a 24,000 sq km hunting territory on the central coast. Our goal was to permanently end the commercial trophy hunting of grizzlies, black bears, wolves and other top predators.

Since this acquisition, we have seen river valleys with previously depressed grizzly presence host growing numbers of boars, sub-adults and sows with cubs. The renewed presence of these bears in previously underutilized salmon watersheds, where excessive hunting occurred for years, has also spurred commercial wildlife viewing and eco-tourism opportunities.

The response to, and success of, this initiative has encouraged us to explore additional coastal licenses that might be available for purchase. As such, Raincoast is examining new territories.

Our 2010 Guide Outfitting Territory Acquisition

Current negotiations are in process for a 3,500 square kilometer territory in the heart of spirit bear habitat. Here, the black bears that carry the recessive gene responsible for producing the white phase of the kermodei are subject to trophy hunting along with wolves.  We plan to purchase this in 2010.

We are also examining a 31,000 sq km territory that has almost 60 grizzly bears in its 5-year kill quota. Other large carnivores, such as the unique coastal wolves we have researched for a decade, are routinely packaged as part of commercial trophy hunts in guide outfitting territories.

Map:  Raincoast’s existing 24,000 sq km GO territory is in green. We are currently negotiating the lower 3500 sq km spirit bear territory for purchase in 2010.  Additionally, we are examining the 31,000 sq km tenure to the north.  Both these territories comprise 34,500 sq km for a total of 59,200 sq km. This would halt commercial trophy hunting in a region over 6 times larger than Yellowstone National Park.