Last week’s public meeting regarding a conservation plan for grizzly bears in the Yukon wasn’t about shooting bears along the highway corridor.

There was brief mention of it. But the meeting was focused on the proposal for the development of an overall conservation and management plan for grizzlies.

There are provisions in the proposed plan for communities to bring forward requests for local roadside closures, just as there are provisions to create a mandatory ethics and education course for resident hunters who purchase grizzly tags.

The proposal discusses the importance of fostering a cultural connection and increased respect for grizzlies.

It raises the importance of considering grizzly bear habitat in land use planning, as well as the habitat of species it depends on, like moose and salmon.

There’s also a recommendation to develop a total allowable harvest for each of the 29 bear management units across the Yukon.

“Achieving this will require a thorough review of how grizzly bear harvest is managed, including providing better and more time information on the number of mortalities from all sources,” says the 52-page document. “Knowing when mortality in a local population approaches or exceeds sustainability and being able to quickly respond to these instances is key to maintaining healthy grizzly bear populations that can sustain a harvest.”

There are recommendations to minimize human-bear conflicts, such as co-ordinating efforts to reduce bear attractants.

The proposed conservation plan was developed over the last two and a half years by representatives of the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board and Environment Yukon.

The initiative arose out of the divisive and passionate debate over roadside hunting of grizzlies, a debate that has been going on for years. The wildlife management board recommended to the Yukon government in 2015 that a working group be formed to develop an overall management plan for the territory.

Executive director Graham Van Tighem of the management board emphasized to a packed room last week that the proposed conservation plan is the product of public consultation. It is a product not of the working group, but of what they heard in lengthy discussions with First Nations, renewable resource councils, communities and the general public, Van Tighem insisted.

He noted close to 1,400 Yukoners responded to the public survey last year.

The wildlife management board is expecting to deliver its recommendation on the proposed conservation plan to Environment Minister Pauline Frost in late December, Van Tighem told the audience.

Some 85 attended the Whitehorse meeting to hear representatives of the board and Environment Yukon. Audience members included Yukoners who’ve been close to the roadside debate for all those years. It included big game outfitters, wildlife biologists independent of the board and government and students from the renewable resources course at Yukon College. For three hours, the discussion went on.

Members of the public have until the end of the business day Monday to provide comments on the proposed plan to the office of the management board.

It plans says: “The vision of this conservation plan is to ensure that there remain healthy and viable grizzly bear populations throughout their natural range in Yukon, for future generations of people and bears.”

The plan provides seven guiding goals:

• foster a cultural connection to, and increased respect for, grizzly bears;

• take care of the land that grizzly bears require;

• minimize human-grizzly bear conflicts;

• ensure grizzly bear harvest is sustainable and respectful;

• foster respectful grizzly bear viewing;

• improve future decision-making by acquiring better knowledge about grizzly bears and;

• better understand human dimensions of grizzly bear conservation.

The plan also identifies 33 specific actions to achieve the goals.

It notes, for instance, that communities are still able to lobby for local closures of roadside hunting of grizzly bears through the regular process used to change wildlife regulations.

“Views of whether roadside hunting of grizzly bears is appropriate vary across the territory, but 75 per cent of respondents to the public survey did not support roadside hunting of grizzly bears,” says the proposed plan. “As such, there is currently no clear path forward on this issue at the territorial level....”

There was little mention of roadside hunting at the meeting. But words used to lay out the seven goals drew attention.

Some wondered whether words like “increasing respect” somehow suggest there is a lack of respect currently.

What is ethical?

As one audience member put it, it doesn’t matter how it’s couched, hunting grizzly bears is disrespectful.

There were questions about the current practice of monitoring bear mortality, and how much of that information is shared.

The issue of shooting grizzlies in defence of life and property before taking all steps to avoid having to kill the bear was raised. It was suggested hunters are purchasing grizzly tags not because they want to shoot a grizzly, but because it simplifies matters if hunters have to shoot a grizzly in the field – no explanation required.

Senior wildlife biologist Tom Jung of Environment Yukon told the audience it’s in the Yukon’s interest to develop a conservation and management plan for the territory.

Grizzlies, he explained, have been declared a species of special concern.

The population is stable in the Yukon, unlike elsewhere in western North America, he said.

He said declaring the grizzly a species of special concern, however, requires the federal government by law to develop a management plan to show how it intends to manage the grizzly bear population in Canada.

If the Yukon can’t demonstrate that it’s developed it’s own responsible plan, Ottawa will step in and do it for Yukoners, he told the audience.