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The Article:
Coastal grizzly hunt territories eyed for purchase by First Nations, Enviros
By Mychaylo Prystupa
June 26, 2015
“Sometimes it gets nasty,” said Jason Moody, a patroller from Nuxalk Nation in Bella Coola.
Patrolling up and down British Columbia's coast with binoculars are a group of dedicated First Nations volunteers that boat right up to armed hunters, often American, in their vessels to dissuade them from killing at-risk grizzlies just for sport.
Called the Coastal Guardian Watchmen, they urge unsuspecting trophy hunters to halt their pursuit of grizzlies as insensitive to First Nations culture, and against tribal law.
“Sometimes it gets nasty,” said Jason Moody, a patroller from Nuxalk Nation in Bella Coola.
"Sometimes you get [trophy hunters] realizing, ‘OK, you guys don’t want the hunting around here. We’ll go somewhere else.'"
Foreign hunters from places like Virginia and Texas pay thousands of dollars to come to B.C.—to be in one of the few places left where the fourth-largest carnivore on the planet can be shot for a trophy head or a bear rug.
Many trophy hunters don't like the altercations with the now 16 native patrollers on the coast.
“It gets tense. Usually just having a presence is enough,” says William Housty, who chairs the Heiltsuk Nation resource management office in Bella Bella, and coordinates many of the indigenous watchmen.
Read full article here
. . . the article in context
By Grizzly Times Editor
June 26, 2015
This amazing article by Mychaylo Prystupa of the Vancouver Observer about the BC coastal rainforest shows you what is at stake with the an effort to purchase grizzly bear hunting leases by First Nations to protect coastal bears.
The piece tackles the issue comprehensively in part because the author had enough space. He clearly talked to all sides of the issue, and from distant places, like England. Unlike grizzly bear coverage closer to home, the author did not feature the government.
The maps and photos are also great. The story was clearly an investment on the part of the paper.
This is the kind of story that the top-notch reporters of the New York Times or Los Angeles Times used to write on bears and Yellowstone.
If we still had coverage of the grizzly bear here like this, people would have a much more thorough sense of what was going on.
Louisa Willcox