of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. In 1995, the Ministry of Environment, Land, and Parks published the British Columbia Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy, which was designed to be a blueprint for managing affairs regarding grizzly bear conservation in British Columbia, and ultimately to reverse the loss of bear numbers and habitat that had been occurring over the past several hundred years. Three main areas of improvement were identified in the Strategy that were needed to secure the long term viability of the grizzlies:The conservation of grizzly bear habitat, the establishment of an independent Grizzly Bear Scientific Advisory Committee, and improvements in research and population inventory methods (British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands, and Parks,1995). The tool that is to be used by the Wildlife Branch in the protection of key grizzly bear habitat is the establishment of Grizzly Bear Management Areas (known as GBMA’s). This initiative is designed to preserve a network of key, relatively intact grizzly bear ecosystems as special management areas. Once an area is to be designated as a GBMA, it can then be managed to limit activities that are detrimental to grizzly bear populations. Once an area has been designated as a GBMA, it will be closed to grizzly bear hunting, it will control other recreational activities that could conflict with grizzly bears, and if possible it will be linked to other GBMAs by corridors that contain habitat necessary for grizzly bears. Selection of areas as GBMAs will be occur with priority to areas that contain suitable habitat, areas that are in close proximity to existing protected areas, and areas where grizzly populations are threatened (British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands, and Parks,1995) . While in theory the idea of GBMAs sound like an effective management tool for conserving grizzly bear populations, the actual designation of an area as a GBMA must be done through the o...
