Grizzly bear watching holidays in British Columbia

Planet

We are committed to operating our trips in a way that has only a positive impact on both the bears and their environment. The partners we work with, who organise the bear viewing trips, make the following statement about their ecotourism principles:

- Our grizzly bear viewing program is organized using the protocols developed at McNeil River State Game Sanctuary on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula and the Commercial Bear Viewing Association of BC, of which we are one of the founding members. This management philosophy is consistent with our goal of safely viewing bears in a natural setting while eliminating or minimizing impact on them. While our first priority is the safety of our guests, our second and very important priority is the safety and health of the grizzly bears and other animals. The wildlife’s need to forage, rest, or travel takes precedent over our viewing activities or desire to get a closer look.
- We are ever diligent to ensure that bears do not have access to human food or garbage, thus ensuring that the bears in our ecosystem can remain truly wild. Here in British Columbia, they often say, “a fed bear is a dead bear”. We agree and go to extreme lengths to ensure that doesn’t happen.
- Each tour begins with a discussion on the environment we are entering, including our rules of behaviour to minimize impacts on the animals and plants.

Knowing that our environment is global in nature we also keep an eye on the big picture:
- We use organic shade-grown coffee and encourage our guests to do the same when they return home.
- All of our office paper is recycled, as are glass, aluminium and plastic containers.
- We strive to produce as much of our power from local renewable resources such as microhydro, solar, and wind power as possible

People

- We purchase organic foods whenever they are available; both for fresh produce and processed foods. If the choice is available, we purchase foods that have been locally grown.