Editor: Re: the bear referred to as 148: We really ought to align bear management with reconciliation. Displacing and killing keystone species is a remnant of colonialist thinking that has been harmful to people and species.
Cultural and ecological species should and could be treated differently, especially when community members are coming out in droves asking for a different approach.
Since when did living or visiting a wild place come with the right to wander around without potential consequence? Why do animals need to be displaced or killed for defending space that arguably they have more right to than us?
What if we just started accepting the risks of being here? Bears get killed if they behave as bears, people get plucked off mountains for free – no matter the other lives their largely irresponsible behaviour puts at risk.
We’ve taken the right to live and experience this place too far. Deconstructing colonialism means re-evaluating how we live with and treat nature. We should start with how we treat cultural and ecological keystone species in our provincial and national parks that in other cultures have much greater value.
Laura Lynes,
Canmore
