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Environmentalists have scored a major victory in Alberta, where the government announced a three-year moratorium yesterday on the province's controversial grizzly bear hunt.

"This is an emotional issue and I've heard from my colleagues in neighbouring jurisdictions that there are always strongly held views on all sides of this issue," Sustainable Resource Development Minister Dave Coutts said.

"Years ago, there was a fall hunt and that was suspended in favour of a spring hunt, and now we're suspending that for the next three years until we get more DNA evidence as to the number of grizzly bears that there are provincewide."

The announcement stunned those who have for years been fighting the hunt.

"I don't know what to do. I'm not used to good news," said Nigel Douglas, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association.

Scientists will take the next three years to try to get a handle on the grizzly bear population, which has been the subject of much debate among conservationists, hunters and the province.

Historical estimates place the population at between 6,000 and 9,000. Recent estimates vary widely.

Some figure that fewer than 1,000 bears are on provincial land and maybe a few hundred are in national parks.

One provincial government committee pegged the number of grizzles at about 700.

But Mr. Coutts threw all projections out the window yesterday, and said it will be up to researchers to conduct a more thorough count, to help guide the government about whether the hunt should be renewed or if grizzlies should be listed as a threatened species.

Jim Pissot, executive director of Defenders of Wildlife Canada, has flooded the government and reporters with letters in the past few weeks urging a halt to the hunt.

Mounting evidence that the bear population is in decline and an outcry from Albertans have finally pushed the government to act, he said. "I'm very impressed with how the minister has integrated those, taken them to heart and made what we think is the absolutely right decision," he said from Banff, where he was attending a grizzly bear management seminar.

In a province where conservationists are only half joking when they refer to environmental issues as part of the government's Industry portfolio, the decision to halt the hunt isn't enough alone to protect grizzlies, but it does represent a seismic shift in culture.

"This is the first tiny little baby step," Mr. Douglas said, "but it's a sign that we are now finally willing to start looking at measures that we need to adopt to restore grizzly bears. That in itself is a sign that there's finally some will to do something about it."

Mr. Pissot said the first call he made yesterday after hearing the news was to the minister's office to offer congratulations.

Over the years, the province has cut the number of hunting tags available (last year it was 73), closed the hunt in certain areas, reduced the number of female bears permitted as part of the hunt and increased poaching fines.

Mr. Pissot said more funding is needed for more conservation officers to help deter poachers.

"I've had one CO tell me that he doesn't even want me to talk about how thin they're staffed because that only increases poaching."

Martin Sharren, executive vice-president of the Alberta Fish & Game Association, said the province bent to political pressure despite an absence of evidence that the hunt is actually hurting the bear population.

"We're kind of painted as the bad hunter guys who just want to kill things," he said.

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