rt to the Minister directly. On October 1 of this year the first Committee was dissolved, and a second committee has yet to have been appointed for the next five years. Since the Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy was completed in 1995 a great deal of effort has been put into analysing the success of the measures taken by the provincial government to stabilise its grizzly bear populations. Establishment of conservation areas has been occurring as part of the provincial governments pledge to protect at least 12% of its total land base (which has occurred just recently). The Khutzeymateen Provincial Park was established in 1995 as Canadas first park set aside specifically for grizzly bears and their habitat (www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore, 2000). It is located north of Prince Rupert on the North Coast, and is comprised of an intact old growth valley that holds a 443 sq. km Class A park, with additional no hunting zones surrounding the core park bringing the total protected area to 3850 sq. km (British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands, and Parks,1995). Further down the coast, the Kitlope River valley is a 3887 sq. km Protected Area that is co-managed with the Haisla First Nation. This park encompasses the world's largest intact coastal temperate rainforest, but in the governments Background Report, it states that ....grizzly bear populations are not high... but that it ...represents a significant watershed that might serve as a grizzly bear conservation area. (British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands, and Parks,1995, p. 35). The largest conservation area that has been established in British Columbia, and the one that shows the most promise for establishing a large enough area that does not isolate small populations of grizzly bears is the Muskwa-Kechika region of the Northern Rockies. In 1999, 1.1 million hectares of land were protected as a provincial park, with an additional 666, 000 hectares added through the Mackenzie...
