Bears of Bute

The Bear Bay Fishing Lodge is an outdoorsman’s paradise, one that sounds almost too good to be true. The beautiful site is located right at the mouth of Bute Inlet’s Bear River on British Columbia’s West Coast, and is optimal real estate for those looking to come face to face with the river’s eponymous species. In the fall, you can get as close as you dare (safety allowing) to grizzlies and black bears in their natural environmentthat’s the season when they flock to the streams to “welcome in” the spawning salmon.With such competition, the fall isn’t the best for prospective fishers, but the lodge is still a great destination any time of the year. During the early spring, the Bute Inlet’s many streams provide an amazing angling experience. There are even helicopters ready to ferry you to the perfect location. When you get bored, you can go hiking on the ridge tops surrounding the bay. Read the rest of this entry »

The Bute Inlet is situated on the British Columbia coast, expanding parallel to Knight and Toba inlets. Running an estimated 80 km inland from its head at Stuart Island, it provides the Homathko and Southgate rivers with mouths to the larger body of water. The Bute Inlet enjoys a feel of privacy and isolation afforded to it by Stuart Island’s shielding location. The island nearly hides the inlet’s opening into the much larger Georgia Strait completely, rendering it easily overlook by passer-bys in plain sight. From bank to bank, the Bute Inlet averages a 4 km width, wider at its onset and slowly narrowing as you move further inland. Mountains shoot up around the inlet, offering a picturesque backdrop as boats float through. Read the rest of this entry »

Grizzly bears are currently thriving in healthy numbers in the province of British Columbia. BC is home to half of Canada’s entire grizzly population and a quarter of all grizzly bears worldwide. Conservative estimates put the total number of grizzlies living in British Columbia somewhere between 10,000 and 13,000 bears. Current grizzly bear habitats in the Kootenay Mountains, Northern Rockies and Northwestern British Columbia are among the most densely concentrated and healthiest grizzly bear populations in the world. Though the grizzly is by no means classified as “threatened or endangered,” the species is listed as “vulnerable or sensitive” due to their intolerance of nearby human proximity and their reluctance to adapt to human heavy surroundings. Read the rest of this entry »

The black bear is actually British Columbia’s most thoroughly distributed large mammal, with only the provinces large urban cores out of its reach. While tough enough to occupy the province’s roughest mountain terrain, the black bear can also make its home on the outer coast and islands of British Columbia. Only 5 of the black bears natural habitat in BC has been permanently forsaken for human development. While a larger percentage of the land supports significant human settlements, black bears, unlike their grizzly counterparts, are actually tolerant of moderate human interaction and unthreatened by close proximity to man. Despite their adaptability, major highways and transportation networks have fragmented and displaced some large black bear constituencies, which has affected population growth patterns in certain areas. Read the rest of this entry »