Grizzly bears in particular have expanded their range further east from the Rocky Mountains during the past few years
CALGARY — A program that helps producers minimize conflicts with large carnivores such as grizzly bears, wolves and cougars in a key part of southwestern Alberta will receive $700,000 over five years from the provincial government.
Grizzly bears in particular have increasingly been expanding their range further east from the Rocky Mountains during the past few years, said Andrea Morehouse, science lead for the Waterton Biosphere Reserve’s Carnivores and Communities Program.
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“And so, you have people that are encountering bears for the first time, and anytime you’ve got people and carnivores in the same spot, there’s potential for some challenges to arise.”
The 1.5 million-acre Waterton Biosphere Reserve contains some of the most spectacular and ecologically diverse landscapes in the Canadian Rockies and prairie grasslands, said UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme. The reserve was designated in 1979 under the international initiative, which aims to foster harmony between people and nature by promoting practical approaches for sustainable development.
It includes Waterton Lakes National Park, Castle Provincial Park and provincial crown lands south of Highway 3, along with rural municipalities such as Pincher Creek, Cardston and Ranchland. Morehouse said the Carnivores and Communities Program was launched in 2009 to promote the safe co-existence of rural landowners with wildlife.
The provincial government will provide $160,000 to the program in 2023-24, followed by an annual $135,000 for the next four years, said a statement by Alberta Forestry and Parks.
“Southwestern Alberta residents have expressed concern about growing grizzly bear, black bear and wolf and cougar populations, the increasing frequency of conflicts with large carnivores and the impacts of large carnivores on local livelihoods and community safety.”
Jenny Gusse and Doug Inglis, both 62, and their dog were killed Sept. 29 by a grizzly while on a back-country camping trip in Banff National Park. They were scientists at Agriculture Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre and were said to be meticulous about being prepared for such trips.
Morehouse said it is important to keep in mind that serious interactions between humans and large carnivores are rare in Alberta.
“But it is a real possibility. If you are living and working and recreating in areas where these animals are, you need to know how to recognize the signs, and how to carry bear spray and how to use it.”
Such tools have been demonstrated in a variety of different ways to be effective, she said.
“But people are understandably a little bit nervous if you have a grizzly bear in your backyard and you’ve got little kids. It is definitely a safety concern, but there are a number of ways that we can address those concerns.”
Although grizzly bears evolved on the prairie, they were pushed out of such habitats after the arrival of European settlers, said Morehouse.
“But now we are starting to see that range expand a little bit, particularly in this region of Alberta and also in Montana, where we’re starting to see that eastern edge a little bit further east.”
She described grizzlies within the Waterton Biosphere Reserve as inhabiting an area where the mountains directly meet the prairie.
“There’s this very stark interface between forested, mountainous public lands to the west and private agricultural lands to the east, and so there’s not much of a transition,” she said.
“Now, you go further north in Alberta and the mountains slowly give way to the foothills and then they kind of roll into the prairies, but here, it’s kind of mountains-prairies right next to each other.”
Grizzlies have been sighted in the Cardston and Del Bonita areas, as well as on the 54,000-acre McIntyre Ranch, she said.
“It’s not like we have massive populations of grizzly bears out in the prairies, but we are starting to see them in those areas.”
A report by Morehouse said there were 87 occurrences involving grizzly bears in southwestern Alberta in 2021 compared to 43 involving black bears, eight involving cougars and six involving wolves. Those involving grizzlies included seven human conflicts.
These are defined in the report as involving physical contact that can include intentional harming or killing of the animal by people, along with charges by bears that may or may not have ended in contact.
Of the 87 grizzly occurrences, 74 of them were incidents, which is when a carnivore caused property damage, obtained anthropogenic food, killed or attempted to kill livestock or pets or was involved in a vehicle collision. Eighty-eight percent of the incidents involved depredation or injury of livestock, up from 68 percent during 2017-20.
Measures under the Carnivores and Communities Program to minimize such occurrences include an initiative to remove dead livestock from the landscape into deadstock bins. It eliminates a major attractant for grizzlies and wolves, which helps reduce cattle depredation that mostly involves calves and yearlings, said Morehouse.
The program also shares the cost with farmers for electric fences or making grain bins more resistant to grizzlies, she said. Producers can add bin doors that are more difficult for the bears to open, along with installing cement floors or replacing wooden bins with ones made of metal.
“And then we also have bear safety workshops. We usually do at least one of those over the year and those are aimed specifically for farm and ranch families to provide some opportunities to learn how to how to use bear spray and some precautions to take while living and working on landscapes that are shared with bears.”
To see a map of the Waterton Biosphere Reserve, visit watertonbiosphere.com.
