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Living in Bear Country

Grizzlies keep residents, managers busy as fall foraging season approaches

By Dillon Tabish

In late July, Kay Burt and some friends were enjoying an evening out on their patio off Labrant Road near Many Lakes when a large female grizzly bear and two cubs emerged in a meadow about 75 yards away.

At first, the experience caused excitement among the group, but after some time uneasiness settled in.

Burt alerted 911 dispatch of the bears on July 31. Over the next few days, several other neighbors, including Edie Kauffman-Landis, reported seeing the grizzlies roaming near homes in the Creston area.

One night the bears broke into a garden and ate corn and carrots. Another night, Aug. 9, a neighbor was awakened by their horse running madly around its pasture, and when the woman stepped outside with a flashlight, she was startled to see the sow grizzly just outside her fence.

The bears didn’t cause any major conflicts, but their frequent presence caused concerns to spike, especially among residents with children.

More calls were made to authorities, including Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, according to Burt and Kauffman-Landis.

“These sightings are becoming more frequent in the past weeks and something needs to be done before there is loss of life or limb,” Kauffman-Landis told the Beacon in an email sent Aug. 25.

The weekend of Aug. 23, wildlife officials successfully captured the 6-year-old grizzly and two young cubs and relocated them to the Flathead Indian Reservation in a remote area in the South Fork of the Jocko drainage, which they previously inhabited.

The capture caused relief among residents but resentment lingered.

Burt and others expressed frustration with the amount of time it took to remove the bears and worried that future reports would similarly go unnoticed until something significant occurred.

Burt cited the incident earlier this year when three grizzlies were shot in Ferndale. The incident is under investigation.

“I’m afraid that something bad will happen involving one of these bears, or that people will take action themselves,” Burt said. “I don’t want to see a grizzly harmed but I also don’t want to see someone get attacked.”

Tim Manley, a grizzly management specialist for FWP with 30 years of experience in the agency, keeps his schedule busy with wrangling problem bears and raising awareness among residents living in bear country. Explaining the latest capture in Creston, Manley described the varied approach the agency takes when assessing a problem bear and determining whether to trap it.

“We look at each individual circumstance and report. We understand that people get nervous when a female grizzly with two cubs walks through their back yard. That’s why we end up setting traps and capturing them,” Manley said. “Sometimes it takes longer. If a bear has been captured before, they’re not easy to catch again.”

The recent female grizzly had, in fact, been captured before, and wrangling her once again proved difficult, Manley said. Crews set up culvert traps but they only caught one of the cubs. Manley worried that keeping the cub trapped for an extended period of time would lead the sow to abandon it, which would diminish that bear’s chance of survival. The bear was released and FWP crews kept an eye on the three grizzlies’ movements until another opportunity arose. They set up an area on private property, away from homes, and captured the sow with a foot snare. Once she was caught and sedated, the two cubs were captured together.

The challenge, Manley said, is juggling human safety and the best interest of the grizzly, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act as a threatened species.

“We don’t automatically go set a trap. If we feel the situation may escalate or continue on, and it would be the best for the bear’s safety and human safety, then we will do that,” Manley said.

Manley said he averages roughly 18 bear captures a year, and this year has been relatively quiet.

“As the grizzly population increases and we get more people in the valley, we’ll have more people interacting with bears,” Manley said. “We try to be proactive and preventative. We try to provide information and educate people who are living and recreating in bear country.”

In Manley’s tenure, there has not been a bear mauling or injury associated with a grizzly encounter in the greater Flathead Valley, not including Glacier National Park.

There are over 1,000 grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, an area encompassing the Flathead and Swan valleys.

Manley encourages residents who live in forested areas or in the foothills to properly secure food attractants, including dog food, bird feeders and garbage. Those with chickens are encouraged to install electric fences, which have proven effective in keeping bears out.

Attractants are the main reason a bear approaches residences, Manley said.

“Usually there’s some reason the bear is in somebody’s back yard,” he said. “A lot of people think they don’t have anything out. But often they do.”

In the coming weeks, bears will be foraging for food as they prepare to hibernate for winter. Right now most bears are in the higher elevations eating the remaining crop of berries, but as fall arrives, they will seek any amount of food they can, Manley said.

Residents, farmers and hunters are encouraged to carry bear spray, secure food and be cautious in the outdoors, Manley said.

For more information on how to be “Bear Aware,” visit http://fwp.mt.gov.