June 22, 2001 Missoulian (AP) article: Bears in Canada park might scare off tourists, critics say.
A proposal to relocate grizzly bears in Manning Provincial Park, just north of the Canadian border, is being met with fear by the park
's U.S. neighbors.The fear is not of the bears themselves — but that grizzlies might scare tourists away from Washington state
's Pasayten Wilderness area.Plans to move 25 grizzlies over the next five years are not concrete, hut Canadian officials say the proposal has more momentum than ever before.
"It
's a way to get the Pasayten shut down," complained Aaron Burkhart of Mazama, who operates Early Winters Outfitters. They'll shut it down during berry season, and then during mating season."Burkhart spends 100 days a year guiding people into the Pasayten and other back country areas on horseback.
"I
'm concerned about introducing a species from the northern territories of Canada, where there's large populations of elk, moose and more fish for them to eat," he said.Burkhart said the Pasayten doesn
't have the food to sustain grizzlies. He expects bears to frequent campgrounds.CAG Comment
We have a similar problem in Idaho and Montana in the Selway Bitterroot Ecosystem, [SBE]. It is a large tract of land but does not have a quality habitat, even for the black bears that live their now and certainly does not have an adequate habitat for grizzly bears, a fact that has been know at least as far back as Lewis and Clark.
Folks who homesteaded in the SBE beginning in the 1840's never once mentioned problems with grizzly bears.
End CAG Comment
"I think that my clients would be less apt to want to come and recreate. They would be fearful," he said