How secure are BCs Grizzly Bears?
Grizzly bears are neither threatened nor endangered in BC but in some areas their habitat is vulnerable, so they are blue-listed. The provincial Grizzly Bear population at 10 to 13 thousand is not low, thus they are not red-listed as threatened or endangered. While BC has lost Grizzly Bear habitat in heavily urbanized or farmed areas in the Lower Mainland and in the Thompson-Okanagan and Peace, 92% of the original Grizzly Bear habitat is still occupied, 81% of it at or near historic levels. The Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy, initiated in 1995, established a Grizzly Bear Scientific Advisory Committee, injected money into inventory/research, raised poaching penalties, raised license fees, and initiated Limited Entry Hunting province-wide (MELP 1995a & b). In addition to some new areas recently closed to hunting, there are areas which have been closed to Grizzly Bear hunting for at least 30 years, particularly adjacent to threatened US Grizzly Bear populations (BC Wildlife Branch rec
