Time running out for Alberta's dwindling grizzlies

After eight years of research, studies and consultations over the status of the province's grizzly bear population, Alberta appears to be back where it began.

Alberta's Endangered Species Conservation Committee is poised to reiterate its recommendation to the provincial government that grizzlies be listed as a threatened species.

It made the recommendation in 2002 based on estimates there were fewer than 1,000 grizzlies in the province. When the committee meets Friday, it will have a hard number -- 691 grizzlies.

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Carl Morrison of the Sierra Club of Canada warns that resuming the hunt would be a huge blight on the province's reputation -- as if it needed another one.

"All the evidence points to the fact that we're dealing with a threatened species in Alberta," he says. "I can't imagine this looking too good for Alberta's international image if we were to open a hunt on a threatened species during the International Year of Biodiversity."