The Battle for Banff's Bears

The Banff-Bow Valley grizzly bear population hangs on in one of the most human-dominated landscapes in which grizzly bears still survive. Unfortunately, this also makes this one of the most threatened grizzly bear populations in Canada. If it is to remain a part of Banff National Park's globally significant natural and cultural heritage, Banff National Park will have to develop and implement a comprehensive grizzly bear conservation strategy. The Grizzly Bear Alliance is working with a variety of stakeholders to ensure this happens before it is too late.

Click here to download The Bear Necessities: A Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy for Banff National Park.

Increasing rates of human-caused mortality, habitat fragmentation, and incompatible human activities in grizzly bear habitat - even in our national parks and protected areas - have put an incredible amount of stress on the Banff-Bow Valley grizzly bear population. Combined with the marginal nature of the habitat and one the lowest reproductive rate of any studied grizzly bear population in North America, these factors put it at risk of becoming extinct by the end of the next century.

Between 1971 and 1998, 107 grizzly bears have been killed in or removed from Banff National Park. Forty-three grizzlies were killed in or removed from the Bow Valley Watershed (much of which is in Banff National Park) between 1994 and June 2002. In the last two years alone, nine of Banff's grizzly bears (more than 10 percent of the population) were killed or removed from the Banff population, a rate many times higher than Banff's own management plan target.

Scientists and park managers have been making management recommendations for the conservation of grizzly bears in Banff National Park and the surrounding landscape for decades, but few of those required to maintain a viable grizzly bear population in Banff National Park have been implemented.

In fact, a recent report by the Eastern Slopes Grizzly Bear Project (Central Rockies Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Population Habitat Viability Assessment Report, 1999) indicates that this grizzly bear population "is not secure: the provincial goal of maintaining or increasing the population above today's numbers is not likely to be met under current conditions."

The 2001 Eastern Slopes Grizzly Bear Project status report states that "mortality in the adult female cohort is concentrated in Banff National Park (4 of 5 known mortalities). Without the greater survivorship in Kananaskis Country the intrinsic growth rate of the population would probably be negative."

Even Parks Canada itself recognizes it is not achieving its "management plan target of less than one per cent human-caused mortality." (Banff National Park of Canada, A Year in Review 2000/2001, Parks Canada)

This must change if grizzly bears are to survive over the long term in the Bow Valley watershed. To this end, the GBA has developed a strong and effective grizzly bear conservation strategy, some of which Banff National Park officials incorporated into the Banff Management Plan in 2003.

Wanna help? Click here.