Abstract:

"The distribution of brown bears in southern Canada has been poorly documented and publicized but, in addition to their inherent value, these bears are critical to the viability of brown bears in the U.S. In this paper I present a British Columbian view of brown bears along their southern fringe and human influences related to industry, settlement, hunting, and fragmentation"

"Relatively healthy brown bear populations occur in the mountain ranges of eastern British Columbia. The breath of their distribution, however, narrows toward the south, and at the U.S. border only the population in the Rocky Mountains can be classified as healthy. Bears live at low density in the Yahk and Southern Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia and a small and perhaps isolated population remains in the Kettle and Granby drainages." (608)

"It is clear that humans have been and remain the dominant factor limiting brown bear distribution and population densities over most of their range, and in particular along the southern and eastern fringe. It is along this fringe, however, that human numbers are increasing quickly. In 1971, British Columbia had 2.25 million people and Alberta 1.63 million, but by the end of 1995, their populations were estimated to be 3.82 million and 2.78 million, respectively (Alberta Bureau of Statistics 1992 [other cites follow]) A similar pattern is happening in Montana; Flathead County is situated next to the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and has the second fastest growth rate of any country in the U.S. (R. Mace, Mont. Dep. Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Kalispell, Montana, pers. comm., 1995)." (608)

" a minimum of 120 brown bears and 311 black bears were destroyed or translocated between 1986 and 1995 from the municipality of Revelstoke, British Columbia (Procter and Neumeier 1996)." (609)

"It is apparent that if brown bear hunting is to continue in fringe areas, it must be conservative and closely monitored." (610)