. Al4> The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 7, 2001

Tahitan oppose ban

on grizzly bear hunt

Moratorium would cripple northern guide- -outfitting industry

By JEFF NAGEL
A PROVINCE-WIDE ban on
grizzly bear hunting would be an
economic body blow to native vil-
lages like Iskut and Telegraph
Creek, say residents north of here.

“It’s very important to us,” said
Iskut chief councillor Louis Louie,
who is appealing directly to Premier
Ujjal Dosanjh not to cave in to pres-
sure in southern B.C. to ban grizzly
hunting.

“We're telling him that maybe
down there they have a grizzly
shoriage, but up here we have ne
shortage of grizzly bears,” Louie
said.

“Just because they call that bas-
ketball team the Grizzlies down
there don’t mean nothing up here,”
he added.

Indeed, when rich Americans and
Europeans. want to see and shoot
grizzlies, ihe remote Spatsizi wild-
erness is where they go.

The big bucks they drop into Hwy
37 villages like Iskut translate into
much-needed jobs for their Tahltan
residenis,

A ban would effectively shut
down the trophy hunt, affecting five
guiding territories in the region that

employ at least 40 people, said -

Tahlian Land Use Office coordinator

TROPHY HUNTERS sometimes
have thelr grizzly kills turned into
baar rugs, like this one.

Brad Nothstein.

“The majority of guide-outfitting
properties in our traditional territory
are operated by Tahitans,” Nothstein
said, “Having those opportunities are
& very important part of our economy
up here.”

The Iskut band operates its own
guide-outfitting operation.

Louie said Eagle River Guiding
employs about a dozen seasonal em-
ployees - from guides to wranglers
to cooks — in a village where jobs
are scarce.

“It brings in good money,” Louie
said,

Aboriginal concerns are twofold.

Besides the threat to the guide-

-outfitting industry, they also fear a

ban could be made to apply to their
aboriginal rights to hunt for food, sa-
cial and ceremonial purposes.

The only way those rights can be
overridden is if hunting would jeo-
pardize stocks.

And Louie contends there’s na
evidence of that.

“There’s na scientific proof that
there’s a shortage of grizzly bears,”
he said. “There's no biological evi-
dence to support the closing of the
grizzly bear hunt.”

Tahltan guides also employ non-
natives in the region,

Terrace assistant guide George
Chinn is among those who work for
Tahltan guide Fletcher Day.

“The impact on the guide outfit-
ters would be devastating — to both
aboriginal and non-aboriginals,”
Chinn said.

*“T just can’t see any reason for
shutting it down,” he said, “It’s well-
managed by the government.”

From front

Ban would ignite hunt fairness furor

Nyce said present esti-
mates suggest around
seven grizzlies can be’
hunted in the area each
year, He said the Nisga'a
should be entitled to two
or three of them under a
formula in the treaty.

The rest of the huntable
bears in the area, which
covers most of the Nass
watershed, are allocated
for other natives and non-
native hunters.

A ban would deny them
from hunting those bears.

And that would break
the B.C. government’s pro-
mise to non-native hunters
prior to passing the treaty.
and raise the spectre of
unequal treatment, says
Watmough, who was a
strong treaty supporter.

“The province would be-
obliged to continue giving
the Nisga'a bears,” he
said. “If there was a comm-
plete ban the other side
wouldn’t get any. And boy
would that make them
an Rad ‘

Other aboriginal groups

in treaty talks are negotia- |

‘ting similar wildlife entit-:
lements, meaning more.
areas of the province could
likewise end up exempt
from a grizzly hunting ban,
as new treaties are signed. .

Skeena MLA Helmut | °
Giesbrecht predicts an ef-
fort by government to ban ~
grizzly hunting could also

numbers:
tel: (250) 746-9988
* Cariboo-Chilcotin:
tal: (250) 249-5267

- © North:

¢ Southem Interior:

¢ Kootenays:

www. cdcv,gov.be.ca

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B.C, environment ministry
is there’s no need for any
change in the annual hunt
to protect grizzly stocks.

“Someone is definitely
Boing to take the issue to
court,” he said. “If mini-
siry officials don’t agree
there's a need [for a ban]
for. conservation then
you're not out of the woods
on that.”

Giesbrecht says he op-
poses banning the hunt
province-wide and has
made that clear. to the rest’
of the NDP caucus, which
is divided on the issue
along urban and rural lines.

“If someone proves tc
me with numbers that they
are endangered, I don’t
mind using whatever
means necessary including

__a@ moratorium to protect

be shot down in the courts.
Native groups exercis-
ing their aboriginal right to

hunt can only be denied -

for conservation reasons,
If the province imposed
a moratorium and tried to

make it stick to the abori-
ginal traditional hunt as.

well, Giesbrecht said, na-

‘tive hunters would quickly —

mount a legal challenge.

And he. says they’d
-have a good case because
the. prevailing view in the
them,” Giesbrecht said.

In the absence of clear
evidence, he said, he'd be
amenable to a reduced

hunt while researchers try
to get better population es-
timates, but added a mora-
torium would be wrong.

“Once you put in place
an outright ban it’s very
hard to get it lifted.”

Giesbrecht said activ-
ists opposing the grizzly
bear hunt might also target
other species.

“Some of these groups
don’t support catch-and-re-

lease fishing — which they
suggest is torturing the fish

- so who knows where
some of this stuff is
leading,” he said. “It could
be the thin edge of the
wedge and you get into a-
ban upon all hunting and it
goes on and on and on.”
“All of this has a very
profound effect on the out-
door recreation industry,”
Giesbrecht added.

The B.C. Liberals also.
Oppose a ban on grizzly
‘hunting without clear evi-

dence of the need for one.

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4

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