Ralph Maughan's great Wildlife blog reporting on the one Grizzly population where their density approaches carrying capacity in close to the USA and Vancouver(Flathead region just North of Glacier National Park and West of Waterton National Park-Canada)

Grizzly bear populations near Vancouver, B.C....By Ralph Maughan

Recent observation of a grizzly in the Pitt River, a reason for hope-

One look at the forested, very scenic, and deep mountains around busy Vancouver, British Columbia and you would think the woods might be full of grizzly bears. It isn't true, especially close to Vancouver. The Garibaldi-Pitt grizzly bear population unit (GBPU) and the North Cascades GBPU are the most depleted (number of bears compared to available habitat). The farther you get from Vancouver (with the exception of the busy Okanagan area) the more grizzly there are compared to what the country could support.

Not surprisingly the country where the big bears do best is generally the north half of the Province, but with healthy populations extending down the Coast Range as long as they don't get within a couple hundred miles of Vancouver or within about a hundred miles of the U.S. border. One nice exception here is the Flathead GBPU, just north of America's Glacier National Park and west of Canada's Waterton National Park. Here they are at about 70% of the habitat's population capacity.

With these facts in mind, the appearance the appearance of a well fed adult grizzly, feasting on salmon in the upper Pitt River about 12 miles north of Pitt Lake and not far from Vancouver is good news.