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MOUNTAIN EXPOSURE
OUTDOORS IN BRIEF
TWO GRIZZLY BEARS CAPTURED AND RELOCATED
An adult male grizzly bear and a sub-adult female grizzly bear both were captured on Sept. 21 in northwest Montana. The bears were tted with GPS radio collars and released along the North Fork Flathead River drainage.
The adult male was captured near Coram after killing unse- cured chickens at a private resi- dence. The bruin is more than 20 years old and weighs 412 pounds. The bear was rst captured in 2004 near Martin City for eat- ing cat food that was left out on a porch. It was recaptured in 2012 for killing two domestic turkeys, again near Martin City.
The bear was released in the Yakinikak drainage near the upper end of Trail Creek.
The 4-5-year-old, 334-pound female grizzly was captured on private property just south of Eureka along the Tobacco River. There had been several observa- tions of a grizzly bear along the river walk on the edge of town.
The trail was temporarily closed while traps were set. This grizzly had no previous con ict history and was released in the Shorty/ Whale Creek area of the North Fork.
During the last week there have been additional reports of grizzly bears in the White sh, Ferndale, and Lake Blaine areas. The hard freezes that have occurred in the last two weeks have caused the huckleberries to start dropping and bears are switching gears to browse other foods.
Some of the grizzly bears have moved to lower elevations where they are nding fruit and attrac- tants that haven’t been secured such as garbage, pet food, bird seed, livestock feed, and poultry. Residents can reduce or avoid con icts with bears by secur- ing attractants and installing and maintaining electric fencing around fruit trees and livestock. In Montana, it is illegal to feed bears and ungulates.
OUT OF BOUNDS ROB BREEDING THE VOICE IS
ISET TO RETIRE
nal out: “If you have a sombrero, throw it to the sky!”
But his greatest moment came in the 1988 World Series, the last won by the Dodgers, and one most thought they had little chance to claim. In game one, Kirk Gibson, the National League’s MVP that season, but by October playing on two bad legs, limped to the plate to hit a walk- o home run for the Dodgers. They went on to upset the Oakland A’s in ve games.
Gibson’s at bat was epic, lasting more than ve minutes. It included three foul balls, four throws to rst base by A’s closer Dennis Eckersley, who was trying to keep the tying run, Mike Davis, at rst base, Davis’ stolen base, and then nally a full count.
When Gibson connects on Eckersley’s backdoor slider, driving it into the right eld pavilion, Scully’s call is simple and pitch perfect:
“High y ball into right eld. She. Is. Gone.”
He then waits more than a minute to speak again, allowing the celebration at Dodger Stadium to ll in the details. Then Scully returns to the mic:
“In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.”
There were other great calls, but more that any precise phrase, there is just the sense of place that Scully’s voice creates for so many of us who have lived in South- ern California.
This is what I hear in his voice:
Summer nights, dangling our toes in the pool. Inside, my old man is watching the game, beer in hand. He’ll be asleep by the seventh-inning stretch (the alarm comes early when you’re a tradesman). The backyard is dark except for the icker of the television coming from the house. Scully’s voice leaks out into the night through the screen door. It’s a voice I’ll always equate with summer and youth and the anticipation that somewhere, out just beyond the television glow, there was something amazing for us to discover.
Usually there was.
DIDN’T GROW UP AN OUTDOORS- man, and it still feels a little silly to call myself such. Yet, by any reason-
able interpretation of the word, I surely qualify. I y sh year round and hunt four or more times a week when bird season opens.
But for some of the traditional activ- ities we associate with outdoorsmen in the Northern Rockies — say prepping a pack string for a weeklong backcountry hunt — I’d be about as useful as a pimple on prom night.
I grew up a city boy in Southern Cal- ifornia, where the outdoors of my youth consisted of three seasons: football, bas- ketball (often played outdoors in that balmy winter climate) and, most impor- tantly, Little League baseball.
Back then, being a baseball fan in Southern California meant being a Dodger fan. Sure, we liked the upstart Angels, but in the 1970s they were just that novelty act down by Disneyland.
The Dodgers are one of the great Major League teams, sporting a handful of World Series titles, and, more impor- tantly, this is the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. Then, when the team moved to Los Angeles, the Dodgers turned baseball into a coast-to- coast national pastime.
The Dodgers also had Vin Scully, for me simply the greatest announcer in sports broadcasting. I don’t mean that just for baseball, or for any particular era.
Scully is the best sports announcer ever. Full stop.
And after 67 years calling Dodger games, the 88-year-old Scully will hang up the mic for good on Oct. 2. Even Giant and Yankee fans will have to stop and appreciate the end of this great Dodger career.
The internet is lled with lists of Scul- ly’s greatest calls. One of my favorites is when Dodger pitcher Fernando Valenzu- ela tossed the only no-hitter of his career, the rst in the major leagues by someone of Mexican descent. His call after the
GLACIER EAR NOSE & THROAT
Dr. Karl Oehrtman, Dr. John Schvaneveldt, Dr. Kent Keele, Dr. Kyle Tubbs, and Dr. David Healy are pleased to welcome
Dr. Mitchell Ramsey
Dr. Ramsey received his medical doctorate from Tulane University Medical School. He completed his Otolaryngology Residency at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu. Following residency he completed a Fellowship in Otology/Neurotology at Harvard. He recently nished up his career in the US Army and joins us from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany where he served for the last four years.
He has held many leadership positions in his military career, deployed as a Head and Neck Surgeon to Afghanistan, and was residency director at Tripler for many years. He is a Northwest native and is very excited to be part of the excellent medical community in the Flathead Valley. Glacier ENT now o ers complex ear surgeries including cochlear implants. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Ramsey!
160 Heritage Way, Kalispell, MT 59901 | 406-752-8330 • www.GlacierENTClinic.com
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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