. 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

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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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