Groundwork laid to bring grizzly bears back to the Okanagan
Groundwork laid to bring grizzly bears back to the Okanagan
Different groups have been trying to bring grizzly bears back to the Okanagan for 30 years, and finally some progress is being made but it’s a lot of paperwork. A year ago, the Okanagan Nation Alliance announced that it is helping facilitate the Joint Nations Grizzly Bear Initiative...
Different groups have been trying to bring grizzly bears back to the Okanagan for 30 years, and finally some progress is being made but it’s a lot of paperwork.
A year ago, the Okanagan Nation Alliance announced that it is helping facilitate the Joint Nations Grizzly Bear Initiative which is trying to bring the bears back to the entire North Cascades region.
https://infotel.ca/newsitem/project-to-re-establish-grizzlies-in-the-okanagan-will-take-time/it105222
Mackenzie Clark is the Wildlife Program Lead for the Okanagan Nation Alliance and she said the program hopes to bring some bears to the region sometime next year.
“We're trying to get all of our ducks in a row to potentially either move bears at the end of this year, but I'm thinking that it'll probably be next year, maybe in the spring or fall,” she said.
The plan is to get grizzly bears back into The Greater North Cascades Ecosystem which runs from the Fraser River in B.C. south to Stevens Pass in Washington, according to the North Cascades Institute.
Part of the program has been filling out paperwork, documents, permits and making sure habitats are ready. The program has also focused on engaging with the public to educate them about grizzlies, particularly farmers who might have concerns about their livestock.
“We've made some good progress,” she said. “We've been really focusing on trying to increase our conflict mitigation work, and then the coexistence and community engagement stuff, just to make sure that the land is ready for the bears to come.”
She said that some people think there are already grizzlies in the area since there are bear statues and logos all over the place, and others think bringing grizzlies back will mean seeing them in their yards. Neither is true. Generally, she said people liked the idea of grizzlies coming back into the ecosystem.
Grizzlies reproduce slowly and occupy a large amount of space, so Clark said if the bears come back people probably won’t even know they are here.
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“It's gonna be a rare chance that it would come close to people,” she said. “People were keen to be able to see them on the landscape. . .when you do get to see one and it's like a nice, positive, neutral interaction, it's usually a pretty special experience for people.”
The ideal scenario that folks were hoping for decades ago were grizzly bears coming back on their own, but since that hasn’t happened, the plan is to bring a few from somewhere else.
Clark said one of her favourite things about the program is how many First Nations like Stó:lo, Nlaka'pamux, St'át'imc, Syilx, Simpcw, Sekw'el'was, Lillooet Tribal Council and Secwepemc Nation leadership, government bodies and NGOs are coming together to make it happen.
“There's like 20 different logos of people that are involved with this work. And I think that has been really rewarding for me. I like being able to bring people together to do stuff collaboratively,” she said.
The initiative also involved U.S. Fish and Wildlife and some non-profits in the U.S.
“Bears obviously don't understand what a border is. So they're probably going to go back and forth. So we've been trying to make sure that we're communicating, having our efforts aligned,” she said.
U.S. government workers have been facing widespread layoffs, but even though some folks feel like their career could be in jeopardy, they have still been working with Clark and other organizations on this side of the border to make the grizzly bear initiative move forward.
“They're just trying to figure out where their careers are going in general, which is unfortunate. But in terms of project collaboration that's been still going well,” Clark said.
She said that anyone with questions or concerns can reach out to her by email.
mailto:mclarke@syilx.org
“We're trying to just make it so that people know who they could talk to about this initiative,” she said.
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