Spirit Of Hartley Bay ... And The Spirit Bear

Bears are commonly spotted in the ancient forests around Hartley Bay. They are frequently seen by local villagers, who have shared the bears’ homeland since time immemorial. But too often they fall into the sights of professional hunters who target the black-furred brethren of the scarce white Spirit Bear, also known as the Kermode. Already affected by dwindling habitat, Spirit Bears face an uncertain future as hunters step up their assault. The white bear has a tenuous foothold on survival, even deep in their coastal archipelago once isolated by glaciers, where they evolved over twelve thousand years ago. On Gribbell Island where one in four Kermodes is white, three of four – which are black – can be legally shot on sight. Luckily for the Spirit Bear, over the millennia they developed a kinship with their human neighbours. This coastal First Nation is a voice for the bears as shrinking forests and bullets in flight add fuel to the gunfire-punctuated debate over Sprit Bear conservation. Hartley Bay is in the rain-rich heart of Spirit Bear country. It is the village of the Gitga’at, part of the broader north-coast First Nation known as the Tsimshian. The town looks across one end of Douglas Channel to Gribbell Island, where ancient trees exhale mist into a low blanket of cloud. A cedar-plank boardwalk skirts the community to convey the relaxed traffic of children, dogs and elders along the oceanfront, past the working boats and seaplanes moored at their doorstep. Marvin Robinson leads us down the boardwalk. He is a young Gitga’at man in hip-waders, gumboots and a ball cap who spends much of his time in the bush, building trails and viewing platforms, or guiding visitors for a look at Gribbell Island Spirit Bears. To my surprise Robinson’s walk through town turns out to be a walk through time. http://sierraclub.ca/bc/storycontest/stories/spirit_of_the_coast.shtml

Note: http://sierraclub.ca/bc...