Along the rugged, remote coast of British Columbia lives a population of American black bears that produces pure white bears at a remarkable frequency. These white bears are not the result of albinism, but of a unique recessive gene that produces white hair instead of black. The government has long recognized these unusual bruins, and they are protected by law from hunting. A few bear biologists have known about them, but had the understanding that the best way to let the white bears live without intrusion was to leave them alone. But today timber industry giants are determining the fate of these bears, and biologists are talking. A wilderness park proposal has been developed on the B.C. central coast to ensure the survival of these unique animals. While the range of these bears is extensive, the Spirit Bear park proposal is where white bears occur with the highest frequency. Here one out of ten bears is white! This remarkable population of black bears lives in one of the world's last pristine areas: an intact temperate rainforest that is the source of rich salmon streams. It seems ironic that the white bears are protected from hunting, but the habitat that supports their survival is in no way protected from logging.
Please help protect this remarkable population of bears and their rainforest home by supporting the 265,000 hectare (660,000 acre) Spirit Bear Park Proposal.

Table of Contents

• Moksgm'ol, meaning white bear, is the Tsimshian word for the Kermode black bear (Ursus Americanus Kermodei).
• The Pristine Habitat of this rare bear and an incredible diversity of life is now being logged. This is one of the richest parts of the world's largest intact temperate rainforest.
• A Proposed Park would protect this rare genetic trait and is an ideal fit for British Columbia's Protected Areas Strategy.
• The Kitasoo People have lived in this wilderness for thousands of years.
• How is the decision made, and who makes it?
• The Paperless Campaign. An email message from you will help to protect this rare population of bears and all other wildlife in this remote temperate rainforest.
• Document Info

Moksgm'ol: White Bear of the Rainforest

The central coast of British Columbia is home to a very rare bear. The scientific name is Ursus Americanus Kermodei, or Kermode Bear, after past director of the Royal British Columbia Museum, Frank Kermode. The museum had in its possession during his directorship a white black bear; it was considered "a curiosity." A Kermode bear is a typical American black bear, except it has a white coat. This is not a population of white bears, but a population of black bears in which a high frequency of white members exist. The pure white bears are not albinos, they are the product of a double recessive gene combination selecting for white hair instead of black. Infrequent glimpses have resulted in the terms "ghost bear" and "spirit bear." Thought to be the effect of a genetic shift in an isolated population of black bears during the last ice age, this unique double-recessive gene combination has survived over thousands of years.

Kitasoo legend says that Raven, the Creator, went among the bears and turned every tenth bear white to serve as a reminder of a time when the Earth's great glaciers covered the landscape. These glaciers have been gone for ten thousand years. Today, logging threatens this population of bears. Right now, an excellent opportunity exists to protect one of the world's most pristine temperate rainforest and marine ecosystems by protecting the core habitat of the Kermode bear. The Spirit Bear Park will be created, but the B.C. government is considering an area only about fifteen percent of what biologists consider necessary to protect this beautiful white bear phase. Public support is the only voice in favor of the bears and their pristine habitat. If it is not protected now, it never will be.

Table of Contents

Habitat Lost To Logging

Living in a pristine temperate rainforest, completely isolated from the forces of progress, the white bears have for thousands of years lived in peace. Places like Princess Royal Island are where white bears occur most frequently within the greater black bear population. One in every ten of the black bears on this island is white. The habitat of Princess Royal and the adjacent mainland is phenomenal, moving from the ocean, up the rivers, to 5000+ foot mountaintops, supporting over 60 classified salmon streams, an annual run of steelhead trout, wolves, grizzly bears, bald and golden eagles, orca whales, dall porpoise, and rare elephant seals and marbled murrelets. An abundance of life prospers here, unspoiled. But the modern world is now tearing at the heart of the pristine wilderness in which this multitude of wildlife lives. Clearcut logging, mostly for export overseas, is threatening this spectacular region. Princess Royal Island, the core habitat of this amazing bear, has already been divided into tracts, and the northern third of the island has already been logged.

Table of Contents

The Solution - A Wilderness Park

The British Columbia Provincial Government is now considering the creation of a park to protect the core habitat of the Kermode bear. But the study area they are considering is only about ten percent of what has been recommended by bear biologists. It is critical that a park which will support the viability of this unique population of black bears be established. The Spirit Bear Park Proposal protects one of the world's few remaining pristine areas. The proposal consists of Princess Royal, Swindle and Campania Islands, and the Green Inlet, Carter Lake and Khutze River watersheds, totaling approximately 265,000 hectares (660,000 acres), of which 85,000 ha (210,000 acres) are on the mainland (Kitimat Ranges) and 180,000 ha (450,000 acres) are islands of the Hecate Lowlands.

An Amazing Protected Wilderness
The Spirit Bear Park would add a "crown jewel" to an already existing contiguous wilderness system composed of several of British Columbia's most impressive parks, including Tweedsmuir, Kitlope, Chilcotin and Fiordland. Over a million hectares of B.C.'s diverse, bountiful, pristine wilderness stretching from the drier interior mountains to the barrier islands off the central B.C. coast. The Spirit Bear Park would overlay two of B.C.'s distinctive biological zones (Kitimat Ranges and Hecate Lowlands), establishing needed protected areas where an enormous variety of life exists.

Salmon Resource
One of the greatest benefits is salmon. This park proposal contains a greater salmon resource than all other existing and proposed parks on the central B.C. coast combined. Five different species of salmon spawn in the rivers contained within the proposal, as well as a large run of steelhead trout. The health of the salmon is dependant on the health of the rivers, which are dependant on the health of the forests. Annual salmon runs average about 170,000 fish, an economic resource valuing in the millions of dollars. For the white bears, eagles, orcas, porpoise, seals, wolves, and countless other animals which depend on the salmon as a major food source at critical seasons of the year, the salmon are priceless.

Old Growth Forest Stands
Many major stands of impressive old-growth forests would be protected. Vast areas of Mountain Hemlock, Yellow Cedar, and Amibilis Fir forests can be found in the drier eastern regions of the park. Coastal Western Hemlock and Western Red Cedar can be found in the lower elevations of the western sections. Throughout the park can be found stands of Sitka Spruce, some approaching "cathedral" stature. These larger stands of forests typically are found along the many salmon streams. The trees serve to shade the streams and keep the water temperatures cool enough for the salmon to spawn and their extensive root systems keep the delicate soil system intact.

Table of Contents

Land of the Kitasoo

The Spirit Bear Park Proposal protects far more than an amazing wilderness. The proposal also protects the ancestral homeland and traditional hunting grounds of the Kitasoo. These native people have lived here for thousands of years. The Kitasoo will be partners with the B.C. government in overseeing this magnificent wilderness. British Columbia works cooperatively with native peoples in the management of B.C.'s wilderness areas. This cooperative policy has proven to be very effective: beneficial to the entire province, native people, and the environment. The creation of the Spirit Bear Park as proposed will be a win-win-win situation for B.C., the Kitasoo, and the area's tremendous wildlife, and will reflect British Columbia's continued commitment to its Protected Areas Strategy.

Table of Contents

Who gets to decide?

New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Glen Clark won British Columbia's May 28th election for provincial premier. That means that the NDP controls the fate of the Spirit Bear Proposal. Tremendous public attention is essential in helping Premier Clark make the right decision by creating this very comprehensive park. Information from within the B.C. government is given the premier by the Prince Rupert Regional Protected Area Team (RPAT), which is in charge of identifying areas for new parks in this part of B.C. They have destroyed the biological value of the proposed Spirit Bear Park by slashing it by over two-thirds. RPAT is considering two smaller areas within the greater proposal. They would protect Campania Island for the traditional uses of the Hartley Bay people, and only a token area of southern Princess Royal Island which would in no way protect the genetic viability of the remarkable Kermode bears. This token designation would allow the government to proclaim the designation of a new park protecting the rare Kermodes and indigenous culture; but in reality, it would leave ancient temperate rainforests to the extractive industries and result in the destruction of most of the healthy salmon streams that would be protected by the greater 265,000 hectare proposal. It would also destroy the enormous potential the Kitasoo have of developing a sustainable tourism economy, which could easily provide many more jobs than timber extraction for this community of about four hundred people. Over half of the timber removed from British Columbia goes to the United States. The next greatest share goes to Japan. The Global Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have put the world's resources at the disposition of all people, though it is controlled by a few special interests. Please help the British Columbia Government understand the importance of this unique animal population and its amazing wilderness. The park will be designated with the stroke of a single pen, but the decision can be affected by each of us.

Table of Contents

Help Protect The Spirit Bear

Public support is critical in establishing the Spirit Bear Wilderness Park. This park would remove less than 1% of B.C.'s available resource from the extractive industries; and yet by protecting the entire 265,000 hectare wilderness area, a vast, rich, and important temperate rainforest ecosystem would be protected as a critical link to an existing park system. Please join in The Paperless Campaign to protect the Spirit Bear! Expressing your concern for these amazing bears, the bountiful salmon streams, the diverse forest ecosystems, and the rich marine environment is one of the best ways to help ensure the survival of these phenomenal white bears and all the other animals that share this rich habitat. Your opinion is extremely important.

The B.C. Government values the weight of paper more than electronic mail, of course, and so addresses are listed. But please, regardless, send an email to support The Paperless Campaign, and the use of email as a legitimate method of expressing public opinion.

Letters may be written to:

Premier Glen Clark       Hon. Cathy McGregor       Hon. David Zirnhelt

Parliament Buildings     Minister of Environment   Minister of Forests

Victoria, B.C. V8V 1X4   Parliament Buildings      Parliament Buildings

Canada                   Victoria, B.C. V8V 1X4    Victoria, B.C. V8V 1X4

Fax: 250-387-0087        Canada                    Canada

Voice: 250-387-1715      Fax: 250-387-3200         Fax: 250-387-1040

                         Voice: 250-387-1187       Voice: 250-387-6240

Document Information

This document was last modified: May 4, 1997

References:
White Bears and Other Curiosities. Royal British Columbia Museum.
Spirit Bear, by Charlie Russell. 1994 Key Porter Books.
Twenty-Two Salient Features of the Spirit Bear Park. Valhalla Wilderness Society.
Spirit Bear at the Crossroads. December 1995, Valhalla Wilderness Society.
Distribution of the Kermode Bear. Map produced by Valhalla Wilderness Society.

Table of Contents
Web Links

Critical Issues

Jumbo Pass Threatened by Proposed Ski Area
Jumbo Pass is a critical grizzly bear corridor. Development of this important sub-alpine habitat will negatively affect bears by creating high human-bear conflict where bears have no place left to go.

Conservation Resources

American Wildlands

Bear Watch

The Slate

Animal Alliance of Canada and their Bear Alliance page

Animalwatch

Greater Yellowstone Coalition

World Society for the Protection of Animals

National Consortium for Environmental Education endangered species conservation projects page.

Rainforest Action Network

Patagonia's Petition

The Ecology Channel

JIM MORRIS ENVIRONMENTAL T-SHIRT COMPANY has, for 18 years, been printing t-shirts that describe threats to the environment and show how you can help. The shirts also show that wildlife and nature deserve our respect and wonder. Great fundraising package for organizations.

Web Resources

New Riders' Official World Wide Web Yellow Pages

The Information SuperLibrary

Starting Point

Yahoo

Lycos

Table of Contents
Document Info