The grizzly bear population continues to rise across Alberta and has more than doubled in the foothills region east of Banff in the last 13 years, including the Cochrane area, called Bear Management Area (BMA) 4.

Results of the most recent population surveys indicate grizzly bears are adaptable and can co-exist on a multi-use landscape, believes Gord Stenhouse, research scientist, and grizzly bear program lead with fRI Research, who completed the work.

Stenhouse believes a reduction in human-caused grizzly mortality and improved food supplies are the two main reasons.

"The last survey we did there (BMA 4) was in 2005, so in 13 years, the population has doubled. This is good news and encouraging relative to grizzly bear management and conservation in this province," says Stenhouse.

He believes how we are changing the habitat in BMA 4 has likely improved the food supply.

"Often people think of forest harvesting as being a bad thing for grizzly bears, which it's not, with one caveat."

"As we change old forest into younger forest, we create a better food supply for bears, and we also get a response [from] white-tailed deer, moose, and elk, which bears eat. With more food around, bears produce more cubs, and the survival seems to be high, which is also good."

His one caveat is the ill-effects of increasing access to bear habitat.

"As we build more roads and access into bear habitat, it comes with problems that relate to human-caused mortality. As long as we can manage mortality associated with access, the population seems to be doing quite well."

For the first time, hard data was collected between Whitecourt and Lesser Slave Lake, which forms BMA 7. It is estimated to have 72 grizzlies.

"We found many more bears than what we expected were there, which is also good."

Now there are science-based population estimates for the entire province, something that is believed to have never been done before by any other jurisdiction.

The physical range of grizzlies takes in one-third of the province, amounting to 220,000 sq. km

"It's a monumental effort that has taken lots of years, but it's now completed. It's very encouraging to have all of this data."

Grizzly bear DNA samples collected by all researchers over the years have been used to establish a provincial database.

"Think of it as all the books in the library. Now you can monitor over time whether animals are living and dying if you get other samples. You can look at productivity in terms of new cubs being added, and you can look at the overall survival rate."

Stenhouse says they were able to determine there are were grizzlies in BMA 4 still alive from the 2005 survey. 

"Thirteen years later, these same bears were still on the landscape, which is quite amazing, interesting, and important, because it shows bears, in fact, can co-exist on a multi-use shared landscape, and that bears are quite adaptive in their behavioral response."

"I don't think in the course of that 13-year period we've had the number of conflicts with people increasing at all. Overall, it's very interesting that bears have shown us they can live with us." 

Stenhouse says the data collected is used by management agencies to assist in determining status reviews and changes in policy or management approaches.

"They look at that along with other information and then decide next steps, so my part of the mission, in terms of data, is done."

These latest surveys bring to an end Stenhouse's 23-year research project

"There are still other things that should be done in terms of grizzly bear research and management, and there are a few more questions that it would be good to have answers for, but we have provided a lot of  basic information to allow sound management in the province."

The recent reports were based upon the work of a field crew of 23 in 2018. They collected the data using barbed wire hair snagging. DNA analysis was completed from the hair gathered.

The population surveys were completed with support from Alberta Environment and Parks, Alberta Forest Productions Assoc. and the softwood industry, including Spray Lake Sawmills.