The Spirit Bear or White Kermode is a genetically unique subspecies of the black bear which only lives on the west coast of Canada's Princess Royal Island. It is down to fewer that 200 bears and the habitat is being threatened by logging. Also, they are being challenged by trophy hunting.
Please join Beholdance in letting everyone know we wish to have the bears protected as they are a national treasure. Also, please know we have been working to save the Spirit Bear for over 3 years so multiple hardcopy petitions and letters have been sent. We need more voices.
We, the undersigned, are concerned citizens who urge leaders to act now to protect the Spirit Bear.
Dear Premier Campbell,
As you are acutely aware, saving the spirit bear means protecting a large enough habitat to sustain its gene pool. While the February 7th announcement achieved a great deal for many stakeholders, it did not meet the ecological bottom line required to ensure the genetic viability of the Kermode subspecies - a bottom line that required protecting the Green watershed.
With tress now falling, I am writing, to request your direct and urgent intervention in order to halt logging in the Green so that a solution can be found to save the spirit bear. Time and time and time again, Mr. Premier, you have stood up and recognized the importance of this bear to our province and the need to protect its fragile existence. You promised the world that you would take the needed leadership to save the spirit bear for "generation after generation."
However, as logging commences, we run the severe risk of creating a forced migration or swamping effect of bears that do not carry the Kermode gene in high frequency into areas where they do - diluting the gene pool and rendering the areas you have thus far have protected, in the name of the spirit bear, useless. Given the fact that you have made this animal the province's official mammal and encouraged it to become the official mascot for the 2010 Olympic games, you and your government have a responsibility to err on the side of caution when speaking of the last chance to save - especially when we have placed an economic alternative on the table. I know that this is a complex issue and one of numerous issues that you have to address - daily. Yet I know that you truly do care about the future of the spirit bear and that unlike many politicians, you have the proven backbone and leadership needed to stand-up and do the right thing. And when you gave us - citizens of British Columbia and concerned, passionate individuals from across Canada and around the world - your word, I knew you accepted the responsibility of seeing this issue through to completion and doing the right thing for the spirit bear, even in difficult circumstances. Please don't prove me wrong, Mr. Premier.
I ask that you do not to let us down; that you do not to let down the millions of young people around the world who believed they could make a difference; and I ask that you, most importantly, do not let down the spirit bear, an undeniably, irreplaceable global treasure.
Sincerely,
