With the Alberta government stalled on making a decision about the fate of our dwindling grizzly bear population, our province is in the hot seat. A timely new book by conservationist Jeff Gailus turns the heat up a little higher.

Jeff Gailus found out what a mama bear looks like up close and personal (and we're not talking A&W here) when he went for a solo run one morning in the wilds of northern B.C. "As I stood alone on that hillside, an irate sow storming toward me with the quick, bowlegged gait of a bulldog accosting a stranger who has happened into its yard, my thoughts revert," he writes in The Grizzly Manifesto: In Defence of the Great Bear. "I'm going to lose that bottle of scotch." The scotch in question had been half-jokingly bequeathed to a friend in the event Gailus didn't return from an adventure he now admits he shouldn't have undertaken alone, sans bear spray or noisemaker, in grizzly country.

While Gailus came out of the woods with an even greater respect for the bear he's dedicated years of his life to protecting, most humans in grizzly country aren't there for a lesson in humility. Thanks to increased industrialization in the energy, forestry and tourism sectors, the grizzly population in Alberta currently stands at about 700 bears--a paltry number that makes Alberta home to the most threatened grizzly population in North America. "Clear-cuts, roads, seismic lines, oil wells, gas pipelines and rednecks with ATVs and guns are making it all but impossible for grizzly bears to eke out a living in the forests, foothills and alpine meadows that we haven't yet taken away from them," writes Gailus.

"More than 100 years after we invented the concepts of 'protected areas' and 'wildlife conservation,' the overheated engine of techno-industrial Progress is still driving the bears north and west like cattle."

Back in March, Alberta's Endangered Species Conservation Committee recommended for the second time that the province list the bears as a threatened species. The provincial government has yet to respond.

Why is the government stalling? "Because they know that grizzly bear recovery is a political hot potato that will require them to radically change the way they manage grizzly bear habitat. They've got 101 reasons for not wanting to do it. First it was 'we don't have enough information.' Then it was 'it's too difficult.' Then it was 'to keep people safe.' Now it's to keep rural voters happy. What the government wants is to be able to log and drill and mine everywhere; grizzly bears just don't survive in landscapes like that."

How did a kid raised in a northwest Calgary suburb come to be a save-the-grizzly poster boy for Alberta? "It was all the trips to Banff my parents took us on. It wasn't the shopping arcade that it is now, and I didn't care about the gondola or the shops anyway--well, maybe the candy shop on Main Street was important. What I wanted to see was wildlife. I got my first camera when I was about 10, and I took pictures of every deer and elk I saw. I remember my first bear, along the highway near Lake Louise. And then I went to Yellowstone and it just blew my mind."

What have grizzly bears taught you? "To be respectful. They are big, powerful creatures that demand our respect, of course, but at the same time they usually show us and each other a great deal of respect. If they're curious they'll approach, and if you're getting too close, they'll let you know, gently at first and then more firmly. I think that's the one thing we can learn from them: how to show respect."

Who do you blame for creating the crisis that you describe in your book? "Whether it's residential sprawl or the oil and gas industry, overdevelopment is definitely the problem. The cause of the problem, however, is that the Alberta government not only lets it happen, but encourages it to happen. It's like the Tories have adopted Dr. Seuss's The Lorax as their long-term business plan."

Why should Joe-Average Calgarian care about the fate of grizzly bears? "Although the book isn't just about Alberta, or even Canada, there's a lot here for Calgarians, in part because I grew up as Joe-Average Calgarian. On the surface, I think it's totally unethical that we're driving grizzly bears out of what little habitat they have left just so we can turn every square metre of the province into money. We've already got a strong economy. We can afford to leave the Eastern Slopes undeveloped and wild to protect grizzly bears and, frankly, our drinking water. We evolved in wilderness and we need to keep some of it around to maintain our sanity."

Do you worry that you're just preaching to the choir? "My hope is that people won't read The Grizzly Manifesto as a sermon. It's just a story of a naive Albertan-- that's me--who comes to realize that everything is not what it seems. Not everyone has to care about or even like grizzly bears, but I think we can all get behind the need for honest and transparent government."

Do you think people are so afraid of encountering a grizzly that they almost want the population to die out so they can feel safer hiking or camping? "Not at all. I know some people are afraid of grizzly bears, but you can camp and hike and paddle in most of Alberta with zero chance of running into a grizzly. Poll after poll indicates that Albertans overwhelmingly want grizzlies to remain a part of our natural and cultural heritage. What most people don't understand is what that will take, and whether or not the government is doing it."

Do you have any faith left in our political system that this problem can be solved? "The problem can be solved if the people want it to be solved. My father used to tell me that 'democracy may not be perfect, but it's better than the next best thing.' He was referring to Stalinism, of course, but there are better and worse ways to run a democracy. Alberta's at the worst end of the spectrum. The current system allows far too much 'ministerial discretion' for citizens to be able to hold the Alberta government accountable for its actions between elections. We can wait until Alberta is a polluted desert, or we can look up from our iPhones and steering wheels and take a look around before it's too late. That's why I end the book with the notion that 'It is time for a revolution.' "

What's one thing you hope readers glean from your book? "That grizzly bears are amazing creatures, and they're not the demons they're often made out to be. They're protective of their young, sure, but they're way more likely to tolerate and avoid you than they are to attack you. They're a lot like us. They're smart, adaptive, fierce and gentle. I've seen a female sleep with her head in the lap of a recumbent male after mating. You can't help but think: they didn't just mate, they made love."

Not to get cute with the anthropomorphizing, but what do you think the bears would say about what's going on? "I like the line from The Big Lebowski-- can you imagine a big ol' grizzly standing up on its hind legs and telling Premier Stelmach that 'This will not stand, ya know! This aggression will not stand, man!'"

Jeff Gailus reads from The Grizzly Manifesto: In Defence of the Great Bear (Rocky Mountain Books) on Thursday, May 20, 7:30 p.m. at Pages on Kensington, 1135 Kensington Rd. N.W.

Further information regarding this topic: Grizzly Manifesto : In Defence of the Great Bear, by Jeff Gailus