The 700 or so Grizzlies in Alberta, Canada must be protected permanently states biologist Brian Horsejsi..........Horejsi wrote the the most recent 2004 report on the status of the Griz in this Province and states------“They(Griz) are dying in Alberta at a disproportionate rate”..........While Grizzlies cannot currently be hunted in Alberta, this ruling is subject to repeal at any time...........Horejsi reiterates that habitat is fragmented and that the bears will always be in jeopardy of blinking out if permanent protections are not put in place

Make grizzly bear hunt

 ban permanent, expert says

Policy against hunting the threatened bears is now

 reviewed annually

Alberta currently prohibits grizzly hunting, but the policy
 is reviewed annually.

Brian Horejsi, who wrote the last major report on Alberta
 grizzlies in 2004, said the province needs to get rid of a
 policy that is reviewed periodically, and pass a law instead.

“Not policy. Not a plan. We need some legislation and
 some regulatory action. Then we'll start to recover this
 grizzly bear habitat, eliminate the mortality and dismiss
 for once and for all time — hunting,” he said.

Alberta has a smaller grizzly population than Montana
 and B.C., but a higher mortality rate, Horejsi said

“They are dying in Alberta at a disproportionate rate,”
 he said.

There are estimated to be fewer than 700 grizzlies in
 Alberta. They have been declared threatened under
 Alberta's Wildlife Act in 2010.

Ryan McClelland, who ranches about 100 kilometres
 west of Lethbridge, said grizzlies are on his property
 at least once a week, breaking into his grain bins and
 making him fear for his family’s safety.

"There was a couple times I took the kids to the bus with
 a rifle,” he said.

McClelland said he’d like to see the province permit a
 controlled hunt in problem areas such as his.

Nathan Webb, a carnivore specialist with Alberta
Environment and Sustainable Resource Development
, said significant conditions would have to be met before
 officials ever considered opening a grizzly bear hunt.

That would include a comprehensive bear-human conflict
 avoidance strategy and a science-based population
estimate of the bears, he said.

But Horejsi said such statements from provincial officials
 do nothing to ease his concerns.

“We don’t need to study this bear population any more.
 We know that it is endangered, we know its habitat is
fragmented,” he said.

People who are in favour of hunting the bears, including
 ranchers, need to accept that grizzly bears belong here
 in Alberta, Horejsi said.

“If we have people who can't live with that, then what we
have to do is take a contemporary and progressive
approach to it and buy these people out and take that
 land-base and convert it to public land,” he said
.