This grizzly and one of her cubs were hit by a train and killed near Canmore, Alta., in 2009. (Alberta Parks)

The Alberta government is failing to protect the province's declining grizzly bear population, says a new report.

The study, sponsored by several conservation groups and released Friday, blames increasing human intrusion into grizzly bear habitats for the animals' declining numbers. It comes just one day after a Canadian Pacific train hit and killed a four-year-old sow west of the Banff townsite.

Industrial activity, road networks for the timber and oil and gas industries, motorized recreation and general development are all expected to increase in those areas, threatening grizzly bears.

"The outlook for Alberta's bears under current conditions is a 98.6 per cent risk of population decline by 30 per cent or more over the next 36 years," wrote Jeff Gailus, the report's author who has studied the grizzly for years.

The report calls for the province to immediately reduce road work and to maintain wilderness areas to protect the estimated 760 grizzlies in Alberta.

The study's estimate is close to the 691 counted by a provincially mandated study published in February by an independent scientist.

That provincial report also noted that cutting down on "motorized access to habitat" would help stabilize the bruins' population.

Grizzlies bounced back in U.S.

Environmental groups have been lobbying the Alberta government to declare the grizzly — currently considered "may be at risk" — as threatened, so that a current hunting ban becomes permanent and steps can be taken to protect their habitat.

Focused efforts and strong laws in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho have tripled the grizzly populations there to the current 600, the report noted.

The same thing could happen in Alberta if the provincial government adopted recommendations already presented in a 2008 recovery plan, added Gailus.

The Alberta Wilderness Association, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the WildCanada Conservation Alliance, the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, and the Sierra Club of Canada funded the study.