November 26, 2010

SPIRIT BEARS: THE NEXT ENVIRONMENTAL SUPERSTAR

The Great Bear Rainforest is not an easy place to get to. It's a wilderness area the size of Switzerland, all but cut off from the rest of civilization.Our ABC News team traveled by float plane. There are no roads here and no landing strips except for the flat stretches of water along the fjords. What brought us to this remote corner of Canada is the spirit bear -- "Canada's panda" -- black bears with white fur because of a genetic variation.
The spirit bear is the marquee species for a region that's also crowded with whales, wolves and eagles."It's a magnificent bear," said Ian McAllister, director of the nonprofit conservation group Pacific Wild.Today, the Great Bear Rainforest faces a threat -- a massive oil pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia, Canada. The plan would turn the spirit bear's home into a superhighway for supertankers.
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