Alberta's Grizzly Century

When Andy Russell died on June 1, 2005, nature honoured him with a tempest the likes of which he had never seen in southwest Alberta during his 89 years. Rain fell like lead shot for almost a week. Mother Nature sent a once-in-200-year deluge, flooding towns and homes along the eastern slopes. By the day of the funeral, the Oldman River, a river Russell fought long and hard (though ultimately unsuccessfully) to save from damming, had breached its banks.

Russell was himself a force of nature. Originally a guide-outfitter with a penchant for storytelling, Russell produced 12 feature-length films, including Grizzly Country, and published 13 books and more than 100 articles and essays. He was an outspoken advocate for wilderness and wildlife, especially the grizzly bears he grew to love during decades spent among them in Alberta and British Columbia. On his death, the Pincher Creek Echo reported that Russell admitted to being “a thorn” in the province’s side at times, a man who never hesitated to “raise a little hell” when necessary.

Despite the downpour, more than 200 people turned up at the Pincher Creek Community Hall to celebrate Russell’s life. Most of his family was there (except his son Charlie, who was in Kamchatka raising grizzly bear cubs), as were life-long friends Sid Marty, Judy Huntley and Beth Russell-Towes. In a sense, Andy attended his own funeral. His son Gordon read from a letter Andy had written for the occasion. In typical Andy Russell fashion, he beseeched his friends, relatives and admirers to “let this be a celebration of my leaving on another expedition.”

Never one to pass up a good party, Premier Ralph Klein braved the weather and raging rivers to see Russell off on his last great adventure. Klein honoured Russell, calling him a “true Albertan original,” someone who “was a living symbol of the values that define the province.”

The words themselves are appropriate enough, given Russell’s legacy, but what do they really mean? Like most political rhetoric, Klein’s kind words are fraught with contradiction. How can one of the Canada’s greatest environmental activists stand for an empire with an environmental track record that makes George W. Bush’s Republicans look like Greenpeace? And what do Klein’s opportunistic remarks say about the future of Russell’s grizzly bears–and Alberta?

To read the rest of this article, buy the December issue of AlbertaViews magazine or visit www.albertaviews.ab.ca/index.html next month when it will be accessible on-line.