“All options on the table” to manage Alberta's concerning grizzly population

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#GlobalNews #bears #alberta It was considered a conservation success story, but it’s now also a growing concern.  Grizzly bears are making a comeback in Alberta, but their population increase is coinciding with a spike in conflicts with farmers and ranchers.  Heather Yourex-West looks at how the province is trying to strike the right balance between public safety and wildlife recovery

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00:00Nicholas Lagarde has been ranching the southern Alberta land for the last seven years,

00:07but he's never seen this many grizzly bears on his property.

00:11This year has been the craziest for us, so we've seen about 16 different individual grizzly bears.

00:17Livestock guardian dog Fenyer is specially trained to keep Lagarde's cattle safe,

00:23but there have been close calls, like the time last spring when his fiance and several calves were charged by a bear.

00:30When I saw him coming uphill, he was standing on his back legs and looked super scary,

00:37and Fenyer had to attack him or started chasing him away.

00:42There's definitely grizzly bears that are moving into areas that we haven't seen them for quite some time,

00:47and so it does appear like the population is rising and the distribution of them is spreading.

00:52After a nearly two decade long ban on grizzly hunting,

00:55Alberta introduced a special license program last year for hunting problem bears.

00:59One bear has been killed so far, but the minister in charge believes more needs to be done.

01:04We want to make sure that we keep Alberta safe.

01:06Is the province considering lifting the grizzly bear hunt ban?

01:11We don't have any plans of doing that at this time.

01:13The province says there are other options, like bear habitat enhancement,

01:17to entice bears away from campgrounds and farms.

01:20Part of the problem is Alberta does not have an accurate handle on how much the grizzly bear population has grown.

01:26The last time a count was done was several years ago.

01:29It seems the population now is probably about 900, maybe 950 individuals.

01:36Nobody knows for sure.

01:37From a population conservation perspective,

01:39we have a ways to go yet before grizzly bears could be considered recovered in Alberta.

01:43But out on the ridge, Lagarde and his neighbours have a different point of view.

01:47I think now is the time to look at introducing sustainable hunt to manage the population.

01:52The government says it will be updating its grizzly policy soon.

01:56Heather Urex West Global News near Pinscher Creek, Alberta.

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