British Columbia grizzly bear hunting debate after Bella Coola fatal attack, Digi Mart USA News (Bella Coola, British Columbia): The BC Wildlife Federation (BCWF) is again calling for the return of grizzly bear hunting, which has been banned since 2017, following an attack that killed a mother and her daughter near Bella Coola, British Columbia. Conservation groups have denounced the move as an attempt to exploit the tragedy.
Jennifer Balcarras, 48, and her daughter Selah Reed, 20, were found dead this week near a trail, a few minutes from their home. It is the second attack in one year in this community on the central coast.
According to the BCWF, which represents hunters, hunting teaches bears to fear humans. Without it, the group expects that fear to fade over time and conflicts to increase, according to its executive director, Jesse Zeman.
That claim is contradicted by Professor Chris Darimont of the University of Victoria, who analyzed decades of conflict data in the province. There is no sign that hunting reduces conflicts, says the scientific director of the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, which opposes trophy hunting.
According to his work, the main driver is a lack of food, such as declining salmon runs, which pushes bears to take more risks. Well-fed bears, particularly on salmon, are safer bears, he summarizes.
On the territory where the attack occurred, the Nuxalk Nation does not wish to discuss reopening grizzly hunting, says its elected chief, Samuel Schooner. Together with the other coastal First Nations he leads, measures were taken more than ten years ago to protect grizzly bears from trophy hunting, a position that has not changed.
The community needs time to heal and find its own solutions, the Indigenous chief adds.
We are the best stewards of our lands.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of the Grizzly Bear Foundation, also considers the idea that hunting makes bears fearful to be absurd. He instead points to the province, which stopped funding the Bear Smart program this year, a program that helps communities keep bears away.
He calls on the new government to fund it further and accuses the BCWF of using the Bella Coola tragedy to revive the grizzly hunting debate.
Their goal is not to protect communities; they want to hunt grizzly bears.
Kim Titchener, founder of Bear Safety & More Inc., also observes a growing problem of increasing conflicts between bears and humans, and she expects hunting groups to press for hunting for that reason.
While Jesse Zeman acknowledges that a return of hunting would not solve the problems at Bella Coola, he argues it should be part of territorial management. Hunting also financed grizzly research and management, he argues, a source of revenue that disappeared with the ban.
Since the hunting ban, calls about grizzly bears have increased, according to data from the Conservation Officer Service. They rose from about 510 per year on average from 2012 to 2016 to nearly 775 from 2018 to 2024.
The number of attacks has remained stable, at around four per year, and only two people were killed from 2012 to 2025.
The provincial wildlife ministry says it sees no clear sign of a population change in the areas occupied by bears for some time. Its most recent estimate, from 2018, puts the province’s grizzly population at about 15,000.
Hunting remains prohibited for all licensed hunters, the province notes, which says it cannot comment on the future of hunting or on Bear Smart funding until the new government takes office.
First Nations retain their constitutional right to hunt grizzly bears for food, social and ceremonial purposes.
The Guide Outfitters Association of British Columbia, which represents outfitters, declined to comment.
