Your Vancouver Sun

Caretaker rejects putting grizzlies in zoo for Games
Ministry officials agree to stick with plan for release into wild
Nicholas Read, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, May 03, 2007

The provincial government says it has backed off from a controversial plan to place two grizzly bears rehabilitated by a Dawson Creek woman in a Kamloops zoo.

However, the woman who rehabilitated the bears is worried it may not keep its word.

Leona Green made headlines last year for being the first woman in Canada to be given government permission to rehabilitate four grizzly cubs and then release them into the wild.

But last week, Green, 72, a feisty grandmother who runs the Hillspring Wildlife Rehabilitation Facility on a five-hectare hobby farm just outside Dawson Creek, was visited by two Environment Ministry officials who wanted to move two of the bears to the British Columbia Wildlife Park instead.

Green says provincial wildlife veterinarian Helen Schwantje and B.C. Fish and Wildlife Branch director Al Martin "strongly suggested" she have her female bears spayed and moved to the Kamloops facility where they would become tourist attractions during the 2010 Olympics.

"They wanted these bears for the general public to view and because they would be a nice drawing card when the 2010 Olympics came along," Green said. "They said they were very interested in tourism and anything to draw the tourists. And they felt these bears would really draw the tourists.

"I told them 'No.' I said they're not going there [to the zoo]. I've raised these bears to be returned to their natural habitat, and that is where they're going."

She wants to release the bears, two males and two females, into the wilderness near Tumbler Ridge where they were found last June, in two to three weeks.

Asked if she was worried that the government might try to jeopardize that release, Green replied: "I told them if they tried to pull any hanky-panky on me, I would load [the bears] up myself and I would head for Tumbler Ridge and release them where they came from."

It is usual practice for local conservation officers and biologists to release the bears Green rehabilitates, although in the past they have all been black bears.

Schwantje told The Vancouver Sun that she and Martin did ask Green about the the possibility of sending two bears to the Kamloops zoo, but when she refused, they backed off from the idea.

"It was obvious she was very uncomfortable with that idea, so we said 'okay, okay, that's fine,' " Schwantje said.

She also promised the ministry wouldn't do anything to prevent the bears' release and that all four will be let go as planned.

Green doesn't know if she can believe that.

"I'm skeptical. I don't know whether to believe them or not. I feel they could change their minds at any time and make a move on me."

Schwantje also said that while the bears will be ear-tagged, they will not be radio-collared, meaning no one will be able to monitor their progress. That would be too expensive, she said, and there are no funds available.

Andy Ackerman, the ministry's regional manager of environmental stewardship for the Peace region, also said ministry staff will release all four bears together close to where they were found, near the Red Deer Creek area by Tumbler Ridge.

But whether they would stay together, he couldn't say. "Bears are like people; you don't know how they will behave."

He also said the ministry works closely with Green and is "very thankful for all the good work she does."