Third bear from Nelson grizzly family killed in Christina Lake

Listen to the broadcast version of this story, which aired on Kootenay Morning on August 28, 2026:

By Jaime Frederick, Local Journalism Initiative

Another yearling grizzly bear was killed by the BC Conservation Officer Service (BCCOS) in Christina Lake on Thursday. Sadly, it’s the third member of the same grizzly family to be killed by the BCCOS in the last few weeks. The situation has led both grizzly bear advocates and the general public to question the policy and process behind those decisions.

The yearling, a male, was first seen in the resort community of Christina Lake last weekend along with its female sibling. The bears had been trapped by BCCOS in Nelson, fitted with radio collars and relocated to a mountainous area 30 kilometres north of Christina Lake on August 14, after the service had killed their mother and another sibling earlier that week. 

The BCCOS announced the killing of the male yearling in a statement on social media on Thursday afternoon. They said the bear had been frequenting the residential area in Christina Lake and that residents there had “reported the bear on the beach, in a boat, in backyards, and on the golf course.” They also said it was “observed eating garbage in a busy campground resort on Thursday.” 

The service said that, “due to its high degree of comfort around people in a residential setting, dependence on non-natural food, and previous relocation” it was not viable to relocate the bear a second time. In accordance with provincial conflict response guidelines they said they killed the bear “to ensure public safety.” The bear’s female sibling has reportedly left Christina Lake and continues to be monitored via its radio collar.

Katie Graves, with the Ursa Project Society, a bear advocacy and awareness group in Nelson, questions why, once the bears were seen in Christina Lake, nothing was done to help residents in the community manage attractants and help the bears’ chances of survival.

“Why isn’t there a conservation officer or a park ranger or somebody in the vicinity to sort of manage the public, really?” she asked.

Graves expresses the anger and frustration of many when she calls into question the way the situation has been handled by the BCCOS. She says the service has completely destroyed any trust and credibility it might have had with the community in both Nelson and Christina Lake.

“I’m not putting this on individual officers by any means, but the policies and procedures have just shattered this amazingly beautiful family of grizzly bears that were, quite frankly, ambassadors, weaving their world into ours,” she said. “If you had a grizzly bear in your backyard, you’d want it to be her and her kids. She was extraordinary. 

“[BCCOS have] really shattered any remaining illusion that this system cares about coexistence,” she added. “I mean, in British Columbia, we say that we love the wild. And then, why are our taxes paying for ‘conservation’ that not only destroyed this family, but also is causing immense trauma to its own community? And it’s not just Nelson now. Now it’s two communities. Now it’s Nelson and Christina Lake that are feeling this.”

After witnessing the events of the past few weeks, Graves says the way the BCCOS has handled the situation is evidence that it needs to be dismantled and restructured.

“It exemplifies why this entire structure of the conservation officer service needs to be dismantled and rebuilt with transparency, accountability and a wildlife policy that reflects the science and the values of the public that it’s supposed to serve,” she said. “The people have a voice. One of the reasons that they stopped the grizzly hunt was because the public was against it, and they listened. And well, we were going to lose our grizzly population if we didn’t be careful there. So they really need to listen to our voices.”

Finally, Graves says that if the overarching goal of conservation policy is to recover the population of grizzly bears in the Kootenays and in the province in general, then people need to deeply re-examine what it means to co-exist peacefully with apex predators such as grizzly bears.

“So from our perspective, we say, ‘Well, you know, is coexistence–you know, them being near us or whatever–is that dangerous?’ Are we doing something wrong by allowing them to be 200 metres from us, feeding on our property? Or should we just be screaming at them and running them off? ‘To where?’ is the first question. The second question is, ‘Let’s flip that upside down and think about it from a bear’s perspective.’

“What they are doing is adapting to what we are doing to their habitat, to their world. We are changing their world and they’re adapting incredibly well. Incredibly honestly. Incredibly, you know, trusting us. And I’ve been thinking a lot about that word. They trusted us. And look what we did. We had whatever minuscule piece of trust was left with Conservation, who’s supposed to be managing the wildlife. That trust is broken.”

Photo of collared yearling grizzly in Christina Lake by Erica McCluney.