In July, the Alberta government introduced a program that would allow certain members of the public to hunt “problem” wildlife, including grizzly bears.
The government refers to the program as its Wildlife Management Responder Network. It’s tied to a June 17 ministerial order made by Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen that lifted a nearly 20-year ban on hunting grizzly bears, which are considered a threatened species in Alberta.
The program only allows select individuals to hunt “problem” grizzly bears, which are defined as any grizzly bear that has killed livestock, damaged private property, become food-conditioned, or interacted with humans resulting in injury or death.
According to Pam Davidson, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Forestry and Parks, the program was introduced because “Alberta has seen an increase of grizzly bear and elk sightings further east from their typical home ranges and into more populated areas.” Davidson says this can lead to higher conflict rates with grizzly bears in particular, mostly around livestock predation and bears becoming habituated to foods around or near areas of where people live.
In what appears to be an attempt to save on resources, the ministry decided to turn to Albertans to help euthanize the bears. Seven thousand members of the public applied to the ministry’s Wildlife Management Responder Network. Using a lottery system, the ministry selected 10 applicants from three regions of the province—north, central, and south—resulting in a total of 30 responders across the province.
“If the need arises for a problem wildlife response, the first person on the responder list in the relevant region will be contacted. If they are unavailable, the next person will be contacted, and so on,” Davidson said in an email.
Applicants only had to meet two criteria to apply to the program: be an adult resident of Alberta and be eligible to hold a recreational hunting licence. Selected applicants receive no further training on managing grizzly bears.
If called upon, Davidson said responders would use field descriptions, photographs, and locations of the conflict to identify the correct animal.
So far this year, there have been 27 grizzly bear incidents reported in Alberta, 25 of which were negative interactions that may have required bear spray or avoidance tactics, and two of which were maulings.
As of September, no responders had been contacted to deal with grizzlies. Davidson added that responders would primarily deal with bears that have attacked livestock or damaged property.
In Alberta, bear-livestock interactions are common. Between 2023 and 2024, black and grizzly bears killed 120 head of livestock in the province. Under the Wildlife Predator Compensation Program, farmers were paid $153,649 and $13.3 million in crop losses.
Not everyone, however, is happy with the ministry’s new program. Nature Alberta, a charitable environmental organization voiced concerns over the decision to allow private citizens to hunt a threatened species. “The changes to this Act do not align with the Alberta Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan that was implemented in 2020, nor does it align with the conservation efforts of a listed threatened species,” the organization wrote on its website. “The recovery plan priority is to ‘resolve human-caused mortality and ensure a supply of high-quality secure habitat through appropriate land management.’”
Nature Alberta has called on Minister Loewen to reverse his order, instead relying on trained, qualified wildlife officials who prioritize non-lethal resolutions to deal with “problem” grizzlies.
The ministry, however, appears to be moving forward with the program. According to Davidson, it will soon be opening applications for responders to deal with “problem” elk. This would work the same way as the grizzly program, targeting “animals damaging stored grain facilities, silage bags, and foraging on hay that livestock depend upon.”
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