BANFF, Alta. - The chief scientist for Parks Canada is defending grizzly-bear researchers in Banff against criticism that they have manipulated data to make it appear that bears are on the brink of a crisis in the national park.
Stephen Woodley, chief ecosystem scientist for the federal agency, says researchers have been objective in analyzing grizzly-bear populations, which they have determined to be "stable at best."
But Doug Leighton, a Banff photographer and former B.C. parks naturalist, said his analysis of the researchers' own bear data shows that grizzly populations in Banff are actually growing.
Critics of Parks Canada say the bear research is an example of allegedly biased environmental science driving the policies of the federal agency, which is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on bear management while money for things such as infrastructure goes lacking. Environmentalists, meanwhile, see the grizzly as an indicator species determining the overall health of the park.
"The grizzly bear has become this big political football that people are using to get what they want," says Mr. Leighton. "The grizzly has become an industry. The more you can show there is a crisis, the more money you can get from the public."
This is not the first time grizzly research in Banff has come under attack. In December of 2000, the Fraser Institute accused bear researchers with the East Slopes Grizzly Bear Project (ESGBP) of a pro-environment bias. Parks Canada, which answers to Sheila Copps, Minister of Canadian Heritage, is a partner in the grizzly project and has invested $500,000.
The Fraser Institute's 55-page report, Off Limits: How Radical Environmentalists are Shutting Down Canada's National Parks, accused the ESGBP of blending science with ideology and environmental activism.
Dr. Woodley dismisses the institute's report as "a politically motivated opinion piece."
"Those [criticisms] are useful, I guess, in the broader realm of things, but it has nothing to do with science. I think it's important to keep science to science and policy to policy," Dr. Woodley said. The grizzly project also gets funding from other sources, including industry, "and you don't see any of those partners squawking," Dr. Woodley added. He defends lead grizzly researcher Mike Gibeau, a Parks Canada warden, and his project team as doing "heroic work under difficult field conditions."
Now in its eighth year of research, the ESGBP has determined that grizzlies in the Banff area have one of the lowest reproductive rates in the world, with females giving birth about every five years.
Mr. Leighton crunched the project's data, however, and determined that the reproductive rates of the bears are much better than the researchers suggest. He verified his findings in a blind test by giving the researcher's figures to the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences at the University of British Columbia, who were unaware of the source of the figures.
Dr. Woodley says the institute's analysis, while accurate, does not reflect the entire picture because Mr. Leighton did not provide them with all of the variables needed for the complex calculations required in population biology.
Although an admitted layman, "I'm not exactly ignorant when it comes to natural history," said Mr. Leighton, a nature and landscape photographer who was born in Banff and worked for eight years as a B.C. parks naturalist. He says the accuracy of the ESGBP data is crucial because so much of Parks Canada's management policy revolves around it.
"The grizzly is critical for the big management picture. It defines human use management plans in the park. Everything in park management depends on the grizzly bear population," he said.
Stephen Herrero, a renowned bear expert at the University of Calgary and the ESGBP head scientist, declined comment on Mr. Leighton's criticisms. However, in a speech last year at opening ceremonies for the Year of the Great Bear, a Banff conservation tourism initiative, he said "There are critics but they are not scientists." The area's grizzly population is "delicately balanced between decline and increase," he said, adding that humans have a moral responsibility to save the bears.
"Logic and science alone will not maintain grizzly-bear populations in our region. Moral concern for the living creatures we share the planet with is needed," he said.
Dr. Herrero recently criticized Ottawa's cutbacks to Parks Canada's funding for bear management in Lake Louise, saying the $350,000 allocated to monitoring and keeping bears away from the town this summer is inadequate.
Earlier this month, helicopters were used to drop moose carcasses into grizzly habitat to keep the bears away from populated areas in Lake Louise. Summer speed limits have also been reduced on the Trans-Canada Highway.
Mr. Leighton said the entire perspective on grizzlies in Banff is out of step with the natural history of the park, which is traditionally poor bear habitat. The reason Lake Louise is so attractive to grizzlies, Mr. Leighton notes, is due to the man-made meadows of the Lake Louise ski area. Bears thrive mainly on three plants that grow best in areas of young vegetation created either by man, fire or other natural processes, according to experts.
Mr. Leighton says grizzly research is driving other conservation initiatives such as Y2Y (Yellowstone to Yukon), which advocates an uninterrupted wildlife corridor from the southern to the northern Rockies.
As part of a G8 summit environmental legacy, the federal government recently put out for proposals a wildlife crossing structure at Canmore, just outside the Banff park boundaries. The structure, which could cost as much as $2-million, will span a water reservoir to assist bear and other wildlife movements from Banff to the Kananaskis region, site of next month's G8 summit. Dr. Herrero and Mr. Gibeau say that without interconnectivity to other areas, Banff bears risk becoming isolated in a "genetic island."
Mr. Leighton says bear researchers need to maintain an aura of crisis or lose funding. But Dr. Woodley remains convinced bear research is driven by science, not environmental ideology.
bremington@nationalpost.com
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