Grizzly’s human contact putting her future in peril
Her future is cloudy. When grizzlies mix too freely with people, the grizzlies usually lose.
And after dozens of encounters with humans, Bear 148 may be shambling perilously close to that fate as she roams the Bow Valley in Banff National Park.
Bill Hunt, a Parks Canada resource conservation manager, says 148 is just doing what her mama taught her: Trying hard to live and let live.
“This is a bear that, to date, has shown a very moderated response,” says Hunt. “She’ll tolerate less than ideal human behaviours time and time again.”
Bear 148 was born 6½ years ago near the mountain resort town of Banff. Her parents were both notable grizzlies. Her mother, Bear 64, lived in the area for 24 years and raised at least two litters.
“She came to be very well known around the Bow Valley.”
Her father is the powerful and locally dominant Bear 122, known colloquially as The Boss, who has sired many of the area’s grizzlies.
For two or three years, 148 and her littermates — Bear 160, a sister, and her brother, Bear 144 — lived with mom. That’s long for a grizzly, says Hunt, but in Banff, it takes a while to learn how to survive.
“There’s great habitat here, but a lot of Banff is rock and ice and it takes bears a long time to learn the complexities of these landscapes and where to find food at different times of year.”
Eventually, Bear 64 died, probably of natural causes. “She just didn’t re-emerge in the summer. She either died in the den or died in the fall.”
The family split up. Bear 160 hightailed to the backcountry, where she remains. Brother 144 roamed outside the park and eventually got into trouble at a llama ranch. He was destroyed.
Bear 148 stuck around and took over her mother’s old range in the Bow Valley. She was well prepared. Her mother had taught her how to use the crossings over the TransCanada Highway, how to skirt along the edge of town, how to use wildlife corridors to stay away from people places.
Her mother also taught her about humans.
“(64) was very habituated and used to being around people,” says Hunt.
But in reality most growers have little choice about where they can sell because the number of nearby elevators is limited, Wells says.
The companies don’t have to accept deliveries as they did under the wheat board, and new infrastructure they’re building will ultimately be funded through the expenses they charge farmers, he said.
“The whole system has switched to … where all the market power rests with the grain companies.”
But Kevin Auch, chairman of the Alberta Wheat Commission, said Western farmers were paid slightly more for grain than their American counterparts in the year following the end of the wheat board monopoly.
The commission is a voluntary promotion, advocacy and research organization.
Auch admits there were lots of problems moving a bumper crop in the winter of 2013, but he doesn’t know if that can be blamed on the changes to the system.
One benefit is the end of restrictions on how much grain the board would take, which forced operators who needed cash to sell other crops even when prices were low, he said.
He thinks the free-market approach has boosted competition to the profit of producers.
“We have more buyers … More buyers is a good thing for farmers who are on the receiving end of higher bids,” the southern Alberta grain grower says.
“There’s some pressure on farmers to learn to market wheat, but they usually grew other crops already, so it’s not a big stretch.”
Although Wells disagrees, one big benefit Auch sees is the increased investment by grain companies in big new facilities that can handle more product faster.
From 2012 to 2016, companies spent about $1.6 billion on elevators across the West as well as terminals at ports in Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Thunder Bay, Ont., according to the Western Grain Elevator Association.
Developments announced in Alberta in the last year include a $50-million terminal in Bowden, two in Vegreville, one northeast of Calgary in Huxley, and a new $500-million Vancouver port terminal.
Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Winnipeg-based Western Grain Elevator Association, says under the wheat board the amount of grain each company handled was based largely on its historic percentage of the business, leaving little chance to boost this proportion.
“Now that has changed. The companies are free to compete to increase their market share … If you can bring more grain into your country elevator network, you have the ability to offer better prices to farmers.”
Despite the wheat board’s demise, issues remain.
These include a class-action lawsuit filed in April on behalf of the 70,000 Western grain producers who claim the board owes them more than $145 million in payments, and proposed amendments to federal grain transportation legislation farmers hope will improve rail service.
Whatever happens, debate will likely continue over the future of Canada’s $5.6-billion annual wheat trade.
“I’m optimistic,” the Alberta Wheat Commission’s Auch says.
“I think we have a good industry. We can work together with other farmers and make this whole industry better.”