Leona Green's Hillspring Wildlife Rehabilitation Facility is not the only B.C. wildlife centre looking after orphaned grizzlies. The difference is that it is the only centre caring for them with a view of letting them go.

In 2001, the Grouse Mountain Refuge for Endangered Wildlife acquired two motherless bears: Grinder from near Invermere and Coola from Bella Coola. A pen was built for them, and they were placed in a naturalistic enclosure for visitors to the mountain to observe.

In 2002, they were joined by two more orphans, Cari and Boo, whose mother was shot by a hunter near Quesnel.

One year later the latter pair were moved to the Kicking Horse Mountain Grizzly Bear Refuge near Golden, where one of the bears, Cari, died during his first winter hibernation.

This year, the remaining grizzly, Boo, gained headlines when he escaped the refuge twice seeking a mate.

Coola and Grinder continue to live on Grouse Mountain, but in 2005 they too earned notoriety when in full view of a group of horrified tourists, Grinder killed one of four wolves placed in the pen with him and Coola.
The wolves were subsequently removed and now the grizzlies live on their own.

The Greater Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove has an eight-year-old female grizzly on display which it acquired in 2001; and the Kamloops Wildlife Park has three grizzlies, two of them elderly males, and the third, a six-month-old cub brought in recently from Alberta.

Green's Hillspring facility is not open to public view.