TL: PROTECTING THE GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST: THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN COASTAL BEARS AND ANCIENT TEMPERATE RAINFORESTS - GREENPEACE MEDIA BRIEFING SO: GREENPEACE UK, (GP) DT: MARCH 1998 The Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia (BC) is home to two of the world's eight species of bears - the North American black bear (Ursus americanus) and the endangered grizzly or brown bear (Ursus arctos horribilis). It is also the only place in the world where a rare, white-coated sub-population of black bear, known as the Spirit Bear, can be found. As wide-ranging predators, bears are an important 'indicator' species for the health of forest ecosystems. They also function as an 'umbrella' species. This means that when adequate bear habitat is protected, the habitat of many other species will also be protected. BC's ancient coastal rainforests are home to some of the largest bears in the world, as well as some of the highest concentrations of bears. However, they are now under threat. The BC Ministry of Environment has rated the present and future impact of forestry on grizzly bear habitat on the coast of BC as high. Over 90% of logging in the fragile coastal temperate rainforests of British Columbia is done by clearcut logging, an industrial practice in which every tree in a large area is cut down and almost all of the forest's biological matter is removed. All aspects of clearcut logging, including the building of roads and the removal of trees, can have negative impacts on coastal bears and bear habitat. Clearcut logging: * diminishes the numbers of wild salmon, which is the most critical food supply for rainforest bears * removes the cover that bears need for travel and shelter * destroys other important plant food sources * removes the large, ancient trees that black and Spirit Bears use for winter dens. Logging roads themselves, aside from the damage caused by the clearcutting that follows their construction, pose other serious threats to bears. When roads are built into pristine areas, not only do they cause direct habitat fragmentation and disruption, but they also open up the area to other forms of development and allow access for hunters and poachers . About half of the 69 remaining pristine rainforest valleys in the Great Bear Rainforest are scheduled to have logging roads built through them or to be logged within the next five to ten years. Just two companies - Interfor and Western Forest Products -hold 90% of the licenses to log these pristine valleys. Bears and Salmon Coastal grizzly and black bears depend heavily on salmon for food, especially in the autumn. Salmon can supply up to 95% of a coastal bear's diet in late autumn and provides them with the fat stores they need to successfully reproduce and make it through the winter. Furthermore, grizzlies are one of the continent's slowest reproducing land mammals and the availability and quality of food supply are crucial to their reproductive success. The damage caused by clearcut logging to the habitat of wild salmon has been well documented. A recent report by the American Fisheries Society found that 702 salmon stocks are at high or moderate risk of extinction in BC and the Yukon, while 142 runs have already been destroyed. The negative impacts of clearcutting on wild salmon include: * loss of the shade needed to keep the water cool enough for survival of salmon, through clearcut logging right down to the edges of streams * reduction in the organic debris which is needed to create pools and resting places for wild salmon and to control water flow * destabilisation of stream banks which increases the risk of landslides on steep slopes when there is heavy precipitation * increased flooding due to loss of forest cover which can destroy delicate salmon spawning and rearing areas * damage to marine habitat caused by the floating stockpiles of logs in coastal estuaries. Grizzly Bears - Special Concerns Grizzlies are the largest of BC's bears, and the farthest ranging. The home range of an individual grizzly bear can vary from fifty up to several hundred square kilometres, depending on habitat quality. Thus, wilderness areas much larger than most of BC's existing parks must be protected in order to maintain grizzly bear populations. Grizzlies were once the most widely distributed bear species in the world. Now they have disappeared from approximately 98% of their range in the United States and 24% of their historical range in Canada. Coastal grizzlies have been shown to rely heavily on the same low elevation forests that logging companies are interested in. Of the remaining grizzly habitat in Canada, 63% is listed as vulnerable or threatened and the rest is considered at risk (Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), 1990). The BC government's estimate places the BC grizzly population at between 10,000 - 13,000. However, some independent bear biologists fear it may be as low as 4,000 - 6,000 . "In every case where new forestry development occurred in coastal grizzly habitat, an apparent decline in grizzly population also occurred. . . " (Archibald and Edie, 1986. Interim Guidelines for Protection of Grizzly Bears in Coastal BC). Spirit Bears - Special Concerns The white-coated Spirit Bears, also known as Kermode bears, are among Canada's rarest bears. They are not albinos; their white colouration is a product of a recessive gene which reaches a very high concentration among some black bears, causing about one bear in ten to be born white. The vast majority of the Spirit Bear's habitat has been destroyed or is still threatened by clearcut logging. Western Forest Products is scheduled to begin clearcutting in Green Inlet, in the heart of a proposed Spirit Bear sanctuary, as soon as spring 1998. Black Bear - Special Concerns Although at present BC's black bear populations are widely believed to be healthy, and the black bear has shown itself to be generally more resilient to habitat disruption and human proximity than the grizzly, there is still reason to be concerned about the future of BC's coastal black bears. A study in the Nimpkish Valley on Vancouver Island found that all of the bears studied used large old-growth trees for denning. This means that, as more and more of Canada's ancient rainforests are clearcut, black bears will have an increasingly difficult time finding places to den. Second growth forests will not grow large enough to provide suitable den sites before they are scheduled to be logged again. Furthermore, the highest ever recorded rate of killings of females and cubs by adult male bears was documented in the heavily clearcut areas on northern Vancouver Island. This could be because mothers with cubs are being forced to forage in the newly clearcut areas where they become much more vulnerable to predation by males, because of the unavailability of plant food in the secondary forests. (Study conducted by SFU researcher Helen Davis for the British Columbian Environment Ministry, 1995).