From early May through October, Great Bear Nature Tours offers grizzly bear viewing excursions from Port Hardy to a beautiful river valley on the central coast of British Columbia. Known as the Great Bear Rainforest, this area is one of the best places in the world to observe grizzly (brown) bears and many other forms of wildlife including black bears, wolves and bald eagles.

Our ecotourism lodge is the ideal base for photography and wildlife viewing tours, nestled at the mouth of a pristine salmon river. Wilderness-gourmet meals await you upon your return from the two guided viewing sessions per day. With a maximum of ten guests, you are assured of a personalised wilderness adventure in this very special area.

The Great Bear Rainforest is home to a significant concentration of coastal grizzly bears. During the late summer and early fall bears are drawn to the many salmon spawning streams feeding into the coastal inlets. While the local bear population reaches its peak in the fall, during the spring and summer numerous bears feed on sedges, succulents and grasses that make up the dense bio-mass of the river estuary. These ongoing sources of high quality food are why coastal grizzlies or brown bears are larger than inland grizzlies.

ECONOMIC RESPONSIBILITY

The economy of Port Hardy has traditionally been based on resource extraction: logging, mining and fishing. Tourism provides a viable alternative to these industries. It encourages more responsible stewardship of the rich habitats of the Great Bear Rainforest and Vancouver Island. One of our owners, Lloyd McGill, has moved from a livelihood of logging and fishing to work exclusively in ecotourism.

We believe that supporting Port Hardy businesses will benefit us in the long term. Encouraging these business to survive and thrive will ensure that they can provide services and products for many years to come. To that end:

• We encourage our guests to spend at least one night in Port Hardy before and after their tour with us. This benefits local accommodation, restaurants, tourism operators, transportation companies and retail stores. The majority of businesses in Port Hardy employ local residents.

• All transportation needs are filled from local operators, including seaplanes, boat charters and land transportation.

• All supplies are purchased locally in town, when available. Anything that is unavailable is purchased in the closest large town, Campbell River.

All employees live in Port Hardy, our base of operations.

We are passionate about living responsibly on this earth. It’s as simple as that. It is why we run an ecotourism company. We have the privilege to guide people into a pristine wilderness area and take our responsibility as environmental ambassadors very seriously. In addition to ensuring that we impact our environment as little as possible, we also like to encourage our guests to do the same.

We employ people from the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw First Nation each year.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY:

The Great Bear Lodge uses solar, hydro and wind power generation. A floating lodge ensures that terrestrial animals and plants are not impacted to the same degree as with a land-based lodge.

Here are the principles we follow:

• Our grizzly bear viewing program is organized using the protocols developed at McNeil River State Game Sanctuary on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula and the Commercial Bear Viewing Association of BC, of which we are one of the founding members. This management philosophy is consistent with our goal of safely viewing bears in a natural setting while eliminating or minimizing impact on them. While our first priority is the safety of our guests, our second and very important priority is the safety and health of the grizzly bears and other animals. The wildlife’s need to forage, rest, or travel takes precedent over our viewing activities or desire to get a closer look.

• We are ever diligent to ensure that bears do not have access to human food or garbage, thus ensuring that the bears in our ecosystem can remain truly wild. Here in British Columbia, they often say, “a fed bear is a dead bear”. We agree and go to extreme lengths to ensure that doesn’t happen. We have had no aggressive bear encounters, but instead negotiate our way out of the rare surprise encounters through defusing the alarm of the bear.

• Each tour begins with a discussion on the environment we are entering, including how to minimize impacts on the animals and plants.

• We purchase organic foods whenever they are available; both for fresh produce and processed foods. If the choice is available, we purchase foods that have been locally grown.

• We use organic shade-grown coffee and encourage our guests to do the same when they return home.

• All of our office paper is recycled, as are glass, aluminium, tin and plastic containers.

• Local water sources are used for our drinking water at the lodge instead of bottled water.

• Guests are encouraged to participate in other ecotourism and cultural activities in the area, including kayaking, hiking and whale watching.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

We are proud to work in cooperation with the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw First Nation. The peoples of this nation have granted us permission to operate on their ancestral lands. We are in the process of setting up a university scholarship for members of the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw nations.

There is no minimum number of guests required for a booking. We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, cheques and bank transfers. The minimum age is 15 years, unless the group books the whole 5 rooms in which case there is no age limit.

Deposit

The following deposit is required to secure a booking:
• 50% is due upon booking
• 100% is due 30 days before departure of trip

Refunds

Tour cancellation:
Due to the nature of operating in the wilderness, Great Bear Nature Tours reserves the right to cancel or delay a trip if the weather is extremely inclement. A refund will be provided to the clients, however Great Bear Nature Tours is not responsible for expenses incurred by trip members in preparation for the trip (e.g., non-refundable airline tickets, hotel stays, etc.).

Guest cancellations:
Upon notice of cancellation, the balance of the trip fee will be refunded according to the following schedule. We recommend that all guests purchase cancellation insurance.

Refund schedule:
• 30 days or more before departure: full refund less $100 per person
• 8-29 days: 50% refund
• 7 days or less: no refund