Grizzly Project Coordinator - Chris Genovali
Grizzly Habitat
Unfortunately, the same pressures that have driven grizzly bears to the brink of extinction in the United States are threatening grizzlies in BC. In the Great Bear Rainforest, habitat degradation and sport hunting are the primary concerns. Because BC does not have endangered species legislation, the grizzly bear is at the mercy of provisions under the provincial Forest Practices and Range Act, a policy rooted in over harvesting, inadequate habitat protection and industry self-regulation. The cumulative impact of sport hunting, poaching, industrial forestry, a salmon decline and the emerging threat of climate change, is cause for concern for BC’s coastal grizzly bears. Raincoast believes that large interconnected network of core grizzly bear habitat must be established in the Great Bear Rainforest to ensure the long term survival of North American coastal grizzly bears.
Although a mother grizzly bear’s home range may be limited to one or two river valleys, male grizzly bears require large clusters of interconnected watersheds to survive. The large body size and subsequent food requirements to support a coastal grizzly bear is one of the reasons that large areas of undisturbed habitat is required. Coastal grizzlies rely on intact ancient forests for denning and bedding sites, thermal cover and security. But most importantly they need ancient forests for their principal food supply of plants, berries and wild salmon.
The province’s Identified Wildlife Management Strategy (IWMS) states that, Wildlife Habitat Areas (WHAs) will be established based on grizzly bear population and habitat objectives. WHAs consist of an entire patch of critical habitat and buffer. The majority of WHAs will be less than 10 hectares. The IWMS is virtually meaningless in the case of a wide ranging apex predator such as the grizzly as it sets an arbitrary one percent cap impact on the Annual Allowable Cut as a constraint on any grizzly bear management initiative.
Logging road construction affects grizzly bears in various ways. Conservation biologists estimate that for each kilometer of road, ten hectares of habitat is fragmented. According to Dr. Brian Horejsi, Grizzlies may either be temporarily or permanently displaced from habitats near roads. Permanent displacement results in alienation [loss] of habitat. Roads fragment the ecological, behavioral and physical continuity of habitat and they physically destroy habitat. Grizzly bear mortality is typically substantially greater in areas with roads compared to roadless areas. Logging roads also allow easy access for hunters and poachers in previously inaccessible wilderness areas.
In the Great Bear Rainforest, in addition to industrial forestry impacts, grizzlies also have to contend with habitat fragmentation caused by noise disturbance, e.g., motorized activity such as helicopters or jet boats on rivers, which disrupts feeding patterns and causes dislocation.
