Alberta's threatened grizzly bear

The GBA provides creative solutions to issues that threaten the Albeta grizzly bear population. To this end, GBA is sitting on the Grizzly Bear Recovery Team to help the province develop and implement an effective Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan. See the province's website for more information.

The GBA is also working with the independent scientific community to develop and build support for an alternative vision that will set the standard for grizzly bear recovery in Alberta, one that communities and industry can support.

Keeping the grizzly bear in the Banff-Bow Valley

In 2002, GBA enlisted the expertise of a local grizzly bear expert to produce a Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy for Banff National Park. This document incorporates a variety of scientific recommendations into a single document that concerned citizens and park managers can use to ensure the long-term survival of the threatened Banff-Bow Valley grizzly bear. More importantly, it provides an economically sound, socially palatable, and scientifically defensible blueprint for the co-existence of bears and people in Banff National Park and the larger Bow Valley watershed.

As a result of this effort, Banff National Park included a Strategic Framework for the Conservation of Grizzly Bears in Banff National Park's management plan (section 5.6.2) in 2002. See the Banff Park website for the latest improvements to grizzly bear management in Canada's first and most famous national park.

Want to know more?

For more information on the status of the threatened Alberta and Banff-Bow Valley grizzly bear populations, please click on the following links:

Status of the Grizzly Bear in Alberta
The Alberta government's recently published (January 2002) official report on the status of the Alberta grizzly bear. Written by John Kansas.

A Conservation Biology Approach to Management of Grizzly Bears in Banff National Park
Mike Gibeau's Ph.D. thesis provides a wealth of information, recommendations and rationale for ensuring grizzly bears remain part of the Banff-Bow Valley ecosystem.

Eastern Slopes Grizzly Bear Project
The Eastern Slopes Grizzly Bear Project was initiated in 1994 to address the urgent need for scientific information about the cumulative effect of human development and activities on grizzly bears in this area. There is a lot of great scientific information on the threatened Banff-Bow Valley grizzly bear population at this site. Of particular note is A Brief Summary of the Status of the Eastern Slopes Grizzly Bear Project (2001). Take a look!