Elijah Washington pushes through branches left by logging, crossing the mossy forest floor on Haida Gwaii. He kneels beside a massive western red cedar stump. …The retrofitted stump is one of seven the Council of the Haida Nation had modified this summer to provide winter shelter for the coastal black bear, known in the Haida language as taan. Found nowhere else in the world, this subspecies of black bear is among the largest in North America. Coastal black bears in BC rely heavily on large old-growth trees and the hollow logs and stumps they leave behind. Decades of logging have removed many of those shelters, however — and the younger trees growing in their place have yet to develop hollows large enough for bears, said Helen Davis, a wildlife biologist working with the Haida Nation to identify and restore bear dens. …Now, the first-of-its kind program could set a model for bear conservation worldwide. [A subscription to the National Observer is required for full story access]