Adam Olsen is hoping the third time’s the charm for his private member’s bill to protect bear dens from logging.
The Green MLA for Saanich North and the Islands is proposing to change the Wildlife Act to specifically define bear dens, and protect them from industrial activities. He first introduced the bill in 2022.
“For over 20 years, experts have been advocating for laws to protect bear dens in British Columbia. The province continues to lack a comprehensive legal protection for bear dens,” he said in 2022, first introducing the bill. “Despite legislative protections in Haida Gwaii and the Great Bear Rainforest, much of the province continues to lack these mechanisms to protect these essential habitats. As a result, bear dens have been left to a patchwork of policies by logging companies, which are inconsistent and unenforceable.”
This month Olsen tabled it for the third time. He says as we are living through the sixth mass extinction caused by human activity, it’s more important than ever to protect the biodiversity of the province, which includes dens where bears hibernate, give birth and raise their young.
Olsen’s bill received first reading in the legislature on March 6.
