AY6 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 14, 2001°

‘Spirit bear’ next
target for activists

By JEFF NAGEL
EMBOLDENED by their swift victory in
halting the grizzly bear hunt in B.C., en-
vironmentalists are now setting their
sights on a new target: preserving a giant
coastal sanctuary for Kermode bears.

Environmental groups that. used bill-
boards and postcard campaigns in south-
ern urban centres and even Europe will
use similar tactics to push for preserva-
tion of a 247,000-hectare area centred on
Princess Royal Island.

“We're starting a big ad campaign in a
couple of weeks,” said Wayne McCrory,
a bear biologist for the Valhalla Wilder-

ness Society and leading proponent of the .

protected area.

The idea has been on the table for
about 13 years, but various groups will
‘now make a concerted push for it.

“We want to get il protected before
the election,” McCrory said.

This time, they'll argue the unique
genetics and small numbers of the white
bear are prounds for creation of:a special
‘protected area they call the Spirit Bear
Wilderness Conservancy.

“We call it Canada’s equivalent of the
panda bear,” he said.”

McCrory said the proposed protected

area would be five times the size of the
existing Khutzeymatecen provincial park,
which was targely created as a grizzly
bear preserve north of Prince Rupert.

Princess Royal [sland’s relatively high
concentrations of Kermode bears, which
activists increasingly refer to as spirit
bears, is the basis for the protected area.

McCrory said the conservancy would
consist of the unlogged southern two-
thirds of the island plus some mainland
valleys. Altogether, he said, it adjoins
other coastal protected areas such as
Fjordland and the Kitlope to create a 1.6
million hectare protected area.

He said the Vathalla Society has a
major report on the Kermode bear coming
out that will bolster the case.

“These bears are in jeopardy and our
interpretation is they’re in serious jeopar-
dy," he said.

The genetic reason why the bears have
a white coat isn’t known, he says, al-
though there are a several theories.

“Because we don’t understand them
we should make a greater effort to protect
them,” he said.

Such a protected area would affect the
logging by Interfor, whose Terrace-based
contract loggers work on Princess Royal.

It's pay back time for

biologist, MLA

THE PROVINCE should
repay Terrace biologist
Dionys de Leeuw the two
weeks pay it docked him
jast year for criticizing the
grizzly bear hunt, says
Skeena NDP MLA Helmut
Giesbrecht. .

Now that the govem-
ment has essentially taken
de Leeuw’s advice and
suspended the hunt, Gies-
brecht says, it's only right
to repay him.

“You can’t punish him

flicting

pulation.

to suspend the
hunt for three
years pending a
better count is
based on con-
esli-
mates of the
B.C. grizzly po-

Although
most environ-
ment ministry
biologists esti-
mate there are
up to 13,000

ma “it's a figure
based on a me-
thod of catcula-
tion that probab-
ly needs more
resources into
it.”
Giesbrecht said
giving back de
Leeuw’s wages
is required if the
ministry wants to
Ri)salvage any
” credibility.
“Much of this is

Dionys

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
of the Terrace & District Multicultural Association
will take place on
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2001 AT 7:00 P.M.
in the Terrace Art Gallery, Author and historian, Lily Chow, y Chow,
will present a slide show and speak on the experiences riences of
early Chinese settlement in northern British Columbia.
For more information, please call Jane at 638-1594.

by suspending him for two
weeks then follow his ad-
vice and put a mozatorium
on grizzly bear hunting
without giving his wages
back,” he said.

. De Leeuw argued -ina
number of discussion pa-
pers he penned that were
suppressed by ministry of-
ficials and drew repri-
mands - that the pro-
vince’s estimates of griz-
zly bear populations are
inflated because of suspect
methodology.

His papers gave grizzly
huni opponents more am-
munition.

grizzlies in
B.C., environ-
ment minister Jan Waddell
cited other scientists and
groups who argue the num-
ber may be as low as
4,000 or 5,000.

Waddell, in justifying
the hunt ban, even used de
Leeuw as an example of
an environment ministry

‘biologist that disputes the

13,000 figure.
“Some are. divided on
that,” he said in an inter-

.View Friday with the Wil- .

liams Lake Tribune. “One

guy in Terrace, one of my |

ministry people, was dis-

de Leeuw

based on his dis-
pute of the
numbers,” he said.

De Leeuw has grieved
his suspension.

Neither Waddell nor
ministry staff would say
what will be done, calling
it a personnel matter.

De Leeuw also authored
other papers that ques-
tioned the environment

ministry’s wildlife branch —
’ decisions because most of

its employcées are hunters.
He’s also suggested let-

ting environmentalists bid

against hunters for bear

hunting rights as a way to»

protect erizzly bears.

The province’s decision

7 puting it.”
From front a

Libs vow to lift blanket grizzly moratorium

attack” on the livelihoad of outfitters.
But the hunt may nat stap for long.
B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Campbell
promised his party will lift the blanket
moratorium and ban the hunt only in
areas where prizzly numbers warrant.
He branded it a crass ploy to sell out
_the north for votes in the urban south.
“Would the NDP honestly have us be-

lieve that they’ve been so inept, negli-
gent and derelict in their wildlife man-
agement practices over the last 10 long
years that, with just days or weeks to go
before an election, the province’s grizzly
bear population is now suddenly
endangered?” Campbell asked. “I don’t
buy it. I don’t believe that’s what the
ministry’s own science says.”

MacKay’s Funeral Service Ltd.

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VOLUNTEER ©
FIREFIGHTERS

candidates interested in becoming volunteer
firefighters to serve in the
Skeena Fire Protection Area,
Volunteers are needed from the following areas:

THORNHILL KLEANZA, GOSSEN CREEK,
USK & LAKELSE LAKE

For more information contact
Wes Patterson
at the Thornhill Firehall

at 638-1466

Phone or attend a fire practice.

Fire practices are held
every Thursday evening
at 7:00 p.m.

Annual General Meeting

of the

Terrace Public Library Association
will be held on

Thursday, February 15, 2001
in the Willy Schnelder Meeting Room
Elections to the Board of Trustees will take place and
nominations for these positions will be accepted fram the floor,

The Regional District of Kitimat-Slikine is looking for

Therhill Firehatl

Regional District af
KitimatStikine

TWATERSHED

Problem Solving on the Banks
of the Kitimat River

Many BC residents are aware of the
importance of fish habitat, and a growing
number are forming groups te take care of
these important environments.

The Haisla Fisheries Commission developed
the Kitimat River Stewardship Program,
funded through Terrace and Kitimat Partners
for Salmonids (TKPS), to monitor human
impact on the Kitimat River and estuary, to
raise awareness of habitat damage, and ta
begin an education program for the users of
the valuable watershed.

In response to Kitimatian concerns regarding
the impacts of camping along the riverbank of
the lower Kitimat River, the Kitimat River
Steward, an employee of the Haisla Fisheries
Commission, developed a survey =
questionnaire. The survey was randomly
delivered to 1000 residents in the fall of 2000
(for both users and non-users of the river) and
was designed to gain more information
regarding the presence of garbage and the
effects of a lack of facilities, such as toilets, on
the environment.

The Haisla Fisheries Commission, based in
Kitamaat Village, is compiling the survey
results. This information will soon be shared
with interested citizens and the District of
Kitimat Staff and Council. A workshop is
planned in the near future with participation
from al] interested parties including the
Habitat Steward for the Kitimat area to
investigate options te remedy the prablems
the Kitimatians identified.

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