Where bears still rule

Wavelength and Mothership Adventures take you deep into the heart of BC’s Great Bear Rainforest

photos by Luke Hyatt and Miray Campbell / Mothership Adventures

From the Summer 2010 issue of Coast&Kayak Magazine. Read the entire magazine online.

Please excuse the invention. But better an invention, its fans would say, than a nameless place forgotten by those in a position to protect it.

The name ‘Great Bear Rainforest’ was coined to serve a political purpose – by environmentalists in the 1990s to give an identity to a vast region of the British Columbia coast they were trying to protect.

And why not invent? The region was otherwise known simply as the BC coast, that area extending north from Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border – approximately 64,000 square kilometres or 25,000 square miles of otherwise nameless forest, but remarkable as the largest intact tract of temperate rainforest remaining in the world.

Four dominant things tend to unite this vast area of land: trees, water, mountains and bears. Take your pick of any of a thousand lesser but equally vital pieces of the puzzle (let’s not forget salmon), but among mammals certainly, nothing exemplifies this wilderness area quite like the bear.

The most endearing symbol is the Kermode bear, also known as the spirit bear for its role in First Nations lore. Not an albino, it is simply a black bear with a regressive gene that gives it a white coat. Found as far afield as Minnesota, the numbers are highest on Princess Royal Island and nearby Gribbell Island, where as many as one in three are estimated to be Kermode bears (elsewhere the numbers are said to be less than one in ten).

As well as the ubiquitous black bear, the region is also home to the grizzly, another symbol of BC’s wilderness. The Great Bear Rainforest is the last natural unprotected range for this endangered breed. The grizzlies once roamed between Mexico and Alaska, but an inability to coexist with humans means that as development spreads, the grizzlies must move out. Because grizzlies are territorial (with a range measured in hundreds of miles as it travels between seasonal food sources), as the size of the habitat decreases so do the number of grizzlies. The numbers have dropped to about one percent of their traditional population in the United States. Only a few U.S. enclaves remain, such as Yellowstone National Park.

There has been some progress for Canada’s grizzlies. For instance, in 2006, the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement created conservancy areas of 4.4 million acres, about a half million of that within Kermode bear habitat, plus environmental monitoring of an additional 10 million acres now subject to sustainable development.

But hunting continues. The David Suzuki Foundation recently issued a report that estimates an average of 253 bears a year are killed by hunters in BC – a number above the sustainable mortality rate for the grizzly in many areas of the province.

As an additional slap against those who would see the grizzly protected, much of the hunting takes place in provincial parks and protected areas – places that would normally be thought to be safe havens for wildlife, and particularly for “big game” animals.

More environmental battles have yet to be won. The most contentious of current plans is to build a pipeline from Alberta’s oilsands to Kitimat (one of just a few ports on the north and central BC coast), then ship the crude oil through narrow, twisting channels of the coast and past Haida Gwaii to Asian destinations.

Proponents will tell you the journey will be entirely safe, with double-hulled vessels piloted to ensure no accidents could occur akin to the Exxon Valdes. But history isn’t nearly so accident-free. It was in this route, between Princess Royal and Gribbell islands that BC Ferries managed to lose its Queen of the North when it struck Gil Island and sank in 2006.

Another focal point was the Petersfield, which limped into Kitimat for repairs while loaded with soda ash and lumber after hitting a rock in Douglas Channel – the route proposed by Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines for its VLCCs (very large crude carriers). The Gitga’at community at Hartley Bay, already concerned over leaking oil from the submerged Queen of the North, sounded the alarm over the Petersfield.

“The ship currently docked at Kitimat looking like a prizefighter with a broken nose is an ugly reminder of the threat posed by proposed pipelines and tanker traffic to the territory of the Gitga’at First Nation,” read a statement issued by the band.

The Gitga’at is one of about 150 groups fighting the Enbridge proposal, which could begin as early as 2012. Aiding their cause is a report released this spring by the Raincoast Conservation Foundation detailing the findings of a five-year study by a dozen Canadian, Scottish and U.S. scientists.

The report concludes a spill could wipe out killer whale populations and spread the damage to terrestrial species. But the debate on the Enbridge proposal is hardly clear-cut, as defeating the Kitimat link may simply divert tankers elsewhere, possibly Juan de Fuca Strait where environmental considerations are equally valid.

Read the full Raincoast report at www.raincoast.org. For the Enbridge perspective, visit www.northerngateway.ca.

If you go:

The North and Central BC coast is a remote area and can be difficult to reach, with land access only from Bella Coola, Kitimat and Prince Rupert. BC Ferries offers kayak drop-offs on its Discovery Coast Passage route from Port Hardy to Bella Bella, Bella Coola and Klemtu. Water taxi service from Port Hardy is available to avoid paddling the difficult open-water transit of Cape Caution. Tours are available; Mothership Adventures, which provided the photos for this feature, departs for weekly tours from Bella Bella in late August and throughout September. Spirit Bear Adventures, operated by the Kitasoo/Xaixais First Nation, offers trips departing from Klemtu for tours of spirit bear territory and traditional Kitasoo/Xaixais territory. Visit www.spiritbear.com. To view Spirit Bears on Gribbell Island, contact top Gitga’at wildlife guide Marven Robinson from Hartley Bay at 250-624-1715 or marvenrobinson@hotmail.com. Other tour operators are listed on pages 32 and 33.