鈥淚鈥檓 not going to point fingers tonight. The language tonight is going to be 鈥榳e need to do better,鈥� and 鈥榳e need to do more,鈥� because we all play a part in this.鈥�
With these ominous words Gord Stenhouse, a scientist at the Foothills Research Institute in Hinton, kicked off an hour-long lecture about how roads kill grizzly bears.
Stenhouse was in Jasper March 31, presenting to a packed house at the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives. He was in town to talk about some of the latest research out of the institute, which has demonstrated a clear link between the density of roads in grizzly bear habitat, and grizzly bear fatalities.
Stenhouse has been studying grizzlies for more than 15 years, and while the issue of roads and bears is complex, Stenhouse explained that at the core of the findings sits the very basic idea that 鈥渂ears die when they鈥檙e associated with roads and people.鈥�
鈥淎s you get more roads, it鈥檚 more likely for bears to die,鈥� Stenhouse said bluntly during his lecture.
And while it鈥檚 easy to assume bears are dying near roads because they鈥檙e getting hit by cars, that鈥檚 not actually the case. The primary danger roads pose to the animals is that they bring them in closer proximity to humans鈥攁nd humans kill bears.
鈥淩oads in and of themselves aren鈥檛 the issue, it鈥檚 the attitude and beliefs of people that would drive down the road, and instead of rolling down the window to take a picture, they put a gun out the window and kill that bear,鈥� Stenhouse explained.
This fact rings even more true considering that in 2013, 31 of the animals were killed in Alberta after encounters with humans, a number significantly higher than its been in the past five years. Stenhouse also explained that for every dead bear they do find, they assume there are at least another 1.5 dead ones they haven鈥檛.
In 2010, after a government of Alberta census on the grizzly population found that there were only about 700 bears in the province, the government listed the animals as a threatened species. When that happened, Stenhouse explained, 鈥渨e all agreed that we needed to do something for bears.鈥�
Stenhouse and his team began looking into what makes good grizzly habitat. They figured out where the bears thrived, and studied those areas to figure out why. What they discovered is that the places where grizzlies did best usually had far fewer roads running through them.
From there they came up with a number: 0.6 kms of roads per square kilometre of grizzly habitat. That is the density of roads grizzly habitat can contain before roads begin to have significant impacts on the bears鈥� population. Any more, and 鈥渟urvival of grizzly bears starts to decline,鈥� he said.
The government is aware of that number, Stenhouse explained, yet road densities in the province continue to increase. This frustrates him, because he says his research clearly demonstrates that more roads means a decline in grizzly populations. With the species already threatened, it needs all the help it can get.
鈥淭he reality is that we鈥檝e kept building roads, the road densities have kept going up, and we鈥檙e exceeding the road density thresholds that we鈥檝e set.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 just keep building roads forever,鈥� he said.
Trevor Nichols
[email protected]
