Eric Donnelly

I recently met with Eric Donnelly a bear advocate and researcher with Bearwatch, when he appeared as a guest on my program Under Appeal, seen Thursdays at 9:00p.m. on the Rogers Cable Network.Representatives of the Ministry of the Environment declined to attend citing the excuse that bear hunting policies were currently under review.

I asked Eric about the objectives of the organization.The priority at the moment according to Eric is the elimination of the grizzly bear hunt in B.C. One of the key concerns of Bearwatch is determining with accuracy the actual grizzly bear population.Unlike the black bear population estimated to between 120 to 160 thousand bears, the grizzly population is estimated to be between only 10 to 13 thousand bears.While the number of actual grizzly bears killed by licensed hunters totalled only 207 bears there was concern that even this small number could have serious consequences when combined with illegal poaching and habitat destruction.There was also anger expressed by various callers at the fact that almost half of the licensed kills were by non residents of B.C. and that hunting territories were also owned by foreign interests.

While supposedly well intentioned the Government's attempts to preserve and protect grizzly habitat have been profoundly disappointing, and may have actually contributed to increased grizzly mortality.In particular, Eric mentioned that under the Forest Practices Code habitat protection measures cannot impact logging levels by more than one percent.

There is also the issue of the aboriginal hunting of bears which raises concern, particularly since certain court decisions have suggested that aboriginals may have fewer hunting restrictions than non aboriginals.I interpreted Eric's comments to mean that he hopes and expects that any moratorium on grizzly hunting would also include aboriginals.

"We feel it is a really powerful document," says Eric Donnely of Bear Watch whose press release on the report issued in July helped push de Leeuw's report into the mainstream press.But Donnely doubts whether the government would be prepared to apply a conflict of interest investigation to an entire department."They wouldn't know where to start."Instead, Donnely suggests the reports value rests in its ability to bring to light a major imbalance in the representation of hunting interests versus non-hunting interests of wildlife.

(11) Bear Watch spokesman Eric Donnelly, Vancouver Sun, Mar. 30, 1998.