MONDAY JANUARY 6, 2014
KOOTENAY SAVINGS
HOPE AIR RECEIVES DONATION
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HIGH DANGER
AVALANCHE CONDITIONS HIGH
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THE BULLETIN PROUDLY SERVING KIMBERLEY AND AREA SINCE 1932 | Vol. 82, Issue 03 | www.dailybulletin.ca
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KIMBERLEY CHAMBER
Chamber AGM coming up Nominations for chamber board now being accepted C AROLYN GR ANT editor@dailybulletin.ca
The Kimberley Chamber of Commerce will be holding its annual general meeting on January 23, 2014 at the Kimberley Conference and Athlete Training Centre. The meeting is an opportunity to reflect on the past year, hear about the agenda for the coming year, and elect or re-elect board members. The entire board does not change all at once, but this year Greg Bradley, Darren Close, Tamara Duggan, Kieran Hickey, Janet Johanson, Grant Sharam, Liana Shaw and Virginia Watson are coming to the end of their terms. Nominations for board members are now being accepted. You can download a nomination form from kimberleychamber.com. You must be a Chamber member in good standing to make a nomination or stand for election. It has been a busy, and change-filled 2013 for the Kimberley Chamber. In January they officially passed over responsibilities for the tourist information centre to Tourism Kimberley, who also moved their operations to the Chamber building in the Platzl parking lot. The Chamber office moved to a storefront on Wallinger Avenue. A new manager, Mike Guarnery, was also hired in 2013.
CAROLYN GRANT PHOTO
Vic and Kathy Buchy lost their Meadowbrook home and everything in it in an early December fire. As usual, Kimberley responds. Above, the FOCUS Society (Karen Soldan and Joan Jobe) presented the Buchys with a cheque for $500. FOCUS, with the generous assistance of the Kimberley Overwaitea store, raises funds through weekly meat draws at the Elks Club.
See CHAMBER, Page 3
Differing views on grizzly management Further debate on hunting of grizzly bears C AROLYN GR ANT editor@dailybulletin.ca
As reported in the Bulletin/Townsman in December, the provincial government is proposing that a limited entry hunt for grizzly bears could be reopened in Manage-
ment Units 4-20 – the St. Mary Valley and north to Skookumchuck – and 4-23 – in the Elk Valley – to allow the harvest of five grizzlies each year for three years. This target could be altered if more grizzlies are killed than the target, either through hunting or rail and road kills. Townsman reporter Sally Macdonald spoke to local wildlife ecologist Bob Jamieson, who said that grizzly numbers are healthy in these areas. According to Jamieson’s report, there
are now more than 900 grizzlies in the East Kootenay. In the Crown of the Continent region – in the Waterton and Flathead areas and northern Montana – there are an estimated 1,226 bears. In the Canadian Rockies there are an estimated 1,309 bears, and west of the Rocky Mountain Trench there are an estimated 1,767 bears, for a total of 4,302 bears. “One of the pieces of the puzzle is that most people don’t realize just how many bears we have now. Grizzly bears are cer-
tainly not a species at risk anymore. We have a very healthy population that is producing an excess of bears that are moving into human occupied areas,” Jamieson told the Townsman. Jamieson supports the province’s proposal to reopen the grizzly bear hunt around Kimberley and in the Elk Valley to manage this population growth. However, a local wildlife biologist, Dive Quinn, disagrees.
See GRIZZLY, Page 3
Caldwell Agencies
290 Wallinger Avenue, Kimberley ❘ 250-427-2221 ❘ www.caldwellagencies.com
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