Coast to Cascades Grizzly Bear Initiative

Southwest British Columbia (BC), Canada, contains several Threatened grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) population units where recovery is constrained by habitat fragmentation and human–bear conflict (HBC). The BC Bear Smart Program provides a science-based framework to reduce conflict, improve human safety, and support bear conservation by addressing attractants, land use practices, and community tolerance. The Coast to Cascades Grizzly Bear Initiative (C2C) applies this framework to advance coexistence at a landscape scale where people and bears increasingly overlap due to expanding human settlement and recovering grizzly bear populations. Pemberton Meadows, an intensively farmed valley identified as a partial ecological fracture between recovering and a Critically Endangered grizzly bear population, is presented as a case study demonstrating how applied science can move a landscape from conflict to coexistence. Multiple scientific approaches, including bear occurrence and mortality data, community surveys, a formal bear hazard assessment, camera and DNA monitoring, and regional connectivity modelling, were integrated to identify conflict drivers, inform corridor design, and guide targeted Bear Smart interventions. These data were translated into on-the-ground actions, including attractant management, installation of over 40 acres of electric fencing, and designation of grizzly bear No-Go Zones around select human-use areas. Collectively, this work represents BC’s first NGO-led, science-driven Conflict to Coexistence program, including the permitted use of aversive conditioning to reinforce bear avoidance of No-Go areas. As bears re-establish use of Pemberton Meadows, these proactive Bear Smart measures are essential to maintaining social carrying capacity and preventing lethal outcomes. This work illustrates a scalable, collaborative framework for addressing increasing HBC and supports the transition from conflict to coexistence in shared human–bear landscapes.