Grizzly drags Canadian woman from tree

CANMORE, Alberta – By all accounts, Isabelle Dube was living life on a high note. She had a happily devoted husband with whom she had just spent a week playing in the mountains. She was able to spend time with her 5-year-old daughter, having quit her job as a fourth-grade French immersion teacher. She had succeeded in climbing Mt. Logan, Canada’s highest mountain. Family, fitness, and friends – she had it all.But while jogging on a path near Canmore with two friends on June 5, a young grizzly bear appeared 60 feet to 75 feet ahead. They had no way of knowing that the bear, only a few minutes before, had been chased off a golf course. As the agitated bear advanced toward them, they backed away slowly, as bear experts suggest. Then, Dube bolted for a tree, the bear right behind her. The other two women continued to back away until out of sight, then began sprinting themselves.Often, climbing a tree to elude bears succeeds – as long as a person climbs fast and high enough. This time, the strategy failed. The bear pulled the 36-year-old woman from the tree and killed her.Canmore and Banff were shocked by the death. “We lack equilibrium today,” said Brian Callaghan, a school principal. “I’m just reviewing her teacher evaluation reports – she was an incredibly innovative teacher, always looking to improve things, but in a very loving and caring way.”Her bereaved husband, Heath McCroy, told the Rocky Mountain Outlook that his wife had adored snow. “The mountains were her domain,” he said. “She just settled into the mountains and thrived on it.”McCroy says he bears no ill will toward fish and wildlife officers who had been monitoring the bear before the attack. “Yes, there maybe should have been a couple more warning signs that the bear was in the area,” said McCroy, a native of Banff. “Mother Nature does what it does.”‘Excesses of Aspen and Vail’But one of Dube’s biking, skiing and soccer-parenting friends, Jeff Gailus, says her death really is a consequence of bad decisions. The province of Alberta, he says, allocated land for development that should have been allocated for wildlife.”Starting in the 1970s, the government of Alberta has sold off thousands of acres of Crown land in the narrow confines of the Bow Valley, hoping the town of Canmore would grow into a tourist destination to rival Banff,” he said. “Rightfully concerned with the effect of rampant development on the community,” he added, “Canmore residents demanded limits be put in place to ensure that enough of the surrounding landscape was maintained in its natural state of the use of recreationalists and wildlife.Subsequent studies have recommended that functional wildlife “corridors” be maintained – both to keep wildlife numbers up and people safe. A 1993 study said wildlife corridors are “probably the most important mitigation measure to protect people from bears.” That advice was ignored, says Gailus. Instead, Alberta approved wildlife corridors that were too small, and the resulting development has made conflicts between people and bears inevitable. In the last several years, several bears have been killed and several people injured in interactions.So, what can happen now? Gailus coordinates a program called BearSmart in Alberta, which promotes strategies that allow bears and people to co-exist. For example, he thinks more signs warning of bears should be posted, and trails and golf courses closed at times. As well, he believes bears will shy away from humans if conditioned by loud noises, rubber bullets and dogs.Canmore, being at the doorsteps of Banff National Park, will never entirely rid itself of bears nor should it, he said. “Our culture has long since matured past the point of shooting every member of a potentially threatened species that wanders into view,” Gailus said. Finally, Gailus urged noblesse oblige. He urged restraint by golfers, mountain bikers and developers as Canmore grows. “Such is the obligation that accompanies the right to turn to important wildlife movement corridor into a resort community that will one day rival the great excesses of Aspen and Vail,” he said. 7 dead bearsEven as Canmore mourned, engineers with Parks Canada, which manages Banff National Park, were thinking about how to prevent bears from getting into Lake Louise. The hamlet and resort are located in prime habitat for grizzly bears. As nearby forests are burned to reduce fire danger, buffalo berries are expected to replace the trees, providing further attraction to the bears.In time, the hamlet is to be fenced in conjunction with the expansion of the TransCanada Highway. One idea is to use the same concept as was once employed at backcountry warden cabins. The wardens placed wooden boards with protruding nails beneath their windows to keep bears away. For this concept to work, however, the fence – using large fiberglass “nails” on the exterior – must cross the Bow River twice and Canadian Pacific Railway tracks three times without any gaps.Although bears pose a threat to the safety of humans, humans pose plenty of threat to the grizzlies. Seven bears have died since 2000 after being hit by cars, trucks and trains. The most recent death caused by a train prompted Defenders of Wildlife Canada to urge several steps be taken. Because the bear had been grazing on dandelions, environmentalists want dandelions in the right-of-way to be eradicated, apparently by herbicides. They also think that the railroad should do more to remove grain that leaks from passing trains, thus attracting bears. Already, the railway has a vacuum truck to suck up large spills, but does not attempt to get the small bits of grain.Vail, Colorado