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 ForestNorth America’s Forests: Page 17 The white bears of Canada live along 1,000 square miles of rainforest on the British Columbian coast and off islands. Their main breeding island, Princess Royal Island, harbors the largest number of these bears, which are a rare color phase of the Black Bear. The percentage is even lower on other islands (Russell 1994). The world population of these bears is estimated at only about 400 (NRDC 2001). A delightful book, Spirit Bear. Encounters with the White Bear of the Western Rainforest, by naturalist Charles Russell, recounted his visits to the island with two filmmakers, Jeff and Sue Turner, who were working on "Island of the Ghost Bear." Russell, who has been studying and helping bears of many species throughout his life, wanted to write a book about the spirit bear to obtain sanctuary status for this island and its bears. The white bears on the island have been protected for thousands of years, first by the Native Americans, and now by the British Columbian government. They are so tame that Russell was amazed, having never encountered such friendly bears of any species. A young white bear came to inspect Russell and the filmmakers soon after they arrived, peering into their camera lens, leaving nose prints on the lens (Russell 1994). This bear would sit down near them, sometimes seeking their protection when larger Black Bears tried to take away salmon he had caught (Russell 1994). On one occasion, Russell followed the bear back into the forest to see where he went. After a long walk through the rainforest, the bear found a soft area covered in bright green moss and decided to take a nap. He was so trusting that he went to sleep with Russell watching him only a few feet away. While asleep, the bear seemed to be dreaming, his eyes moving, legs twitching, and sometimes grunting (Russell 1994). Russell's book is illustrated with many photos of the bear fishing, sprawled on his back in the forest, and climbing about the rocks. This bear let himself be scratched with a stick and even tried to wrestle with Russell and Jeff Turner. Russell and the Turners left the island but returned after a year, and the bear came to greet them, sitting down a few feet away as if they had not been gone at all (Russell 1994).
The entire range of this bear is slated for logging. The Black Bears living on these islands, which carry white bear genes and are only a bit less tame than the white bears, are hunted under British Columbian law, which allows two bears per hunter each season. When they were filming the bears, some Swiss, German and Austrian hunters had arranged a bear hunt (Russell 2000).
The film, “Ghost Bear,” shown on PBS's Nature series in 1994, captured an island little changed for 10,000 years, never logged and teeming with wildlife. Black wolves, mergansers, Beavers, salmon and Bald Eagles live in this mossy, verdant forest with towering trees. The filmmakers urged protection for the bears and the forest. Other defenders of this bear and its forest are the members of the Kitasoo and Gitga’at Indian tribes of British Columbia, who believe that the white bears were created by a raven who came from heaven and decreed, "The white bears will live here forever in peace." The tribe wants to create a park of the entire area to protect the bears and the rainforest. Logging proceeded, however, within the proposed park, and a logging company cut a road through one island's ancient rainforest and the ancestral Kitasoo deer-hunting grounds. The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) began in the mid-1990s to help create a sanctuary, which is opposed by the British Columbian government. Twenty million acres of rainforest in the province may be cut, and RAN is campaigning to convince US customers to cancel contracts and refuse to buy products from these ancient forests (Rosmarin 1995).
A Canadian couple, Ian and Karen McAllister, have formed an organization, Rainforest Conservation Society, to preserve the habitat of the Ghost Bears and the Great Bear Rainforest. Their book, The Great Bear Rainforest, Canada's Forgotten Coast, published in 1997 by Sierra Club Press, eloquently describes this magnificent region and their work to help preserve it. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), headquartered in New York, took on the cause in 2000, urging a consumer and commercial boycott of International Forest Products (Interfor), a logging company that is cutting the old-growth forests in the heart of 18 untouched rainforest valleys in the Great Bear Rainforest. As the company was about to clearcut East Creek on one island, it was stopped by construction of a tribal longhouse by the Gita’at Tribe at the mouth of the creek, aided by NRDC, which forced the company to suspend its plans (NRDC 2001). Negotiations between conservation groups and six logging companies, including Interfor, had appeared to achieve protection of the Great Bear Rainforest, but Interfor pulled out of the agreement and recently began logging within the habitat of the white bears. This devastation of a magnificent environment does not even make economic sense, as there could be a sizeable market for videocam views linked to a satellite of these enchanting bears and their mossy, green forests, paid for by viewers around the world for a long-term profit far exceeding that which will accrue to the loggers. The Giant Panda is also a charismatic species, and conservation donations from zoos now total $10 million a year or more to preserve the species’ habitat. The white and black bears of this wilderness deserve no less.
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