September 6, 2000 Bozeman Chronicle Article By JOAN HAINES: Hungry bears creeping into town.
A bear trap is lurking in front of Bozeman's water treatment plant on Sourdough Road, waiting to capture a large black bruin that has been seen there between midnight and 4 a.m. every night since Friday.
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The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service wants to create this scenario in Ravalli County, only using grizzly bears -- a much more dangerous situation than the black bear that confronted residence in Hamilton a short time ago.
Why will this happen?? Because the Selway Bitterroot Ecosystem [SBE] does not have a quality habitat for grizzly bears and they will come into the valley looking for food, producing bear/human conflicts, subsequently human/Endangered Species Act Conflicts.
Dr. Chriss Servheen of the Interagency grizzly bear reintroduction committee, and various environmental groups are now publishing in papers throughout the United States articles designed to garner public support for the reintroduction of grizzly bears into the SBE and have in some cases made it possible for proponent and opponents to email the comments and in other cases they have invited written comments.
They have virtually stopped publishing articles in the newspapers serving this area.
Federal agencies that have been captured by environmental groups through Top Down Management have hampered the fire fighters by decreeing they only fight fires when the threaten lives or structures; and yet those same agencies, through Top Down Management are requesting that grizzly bears be reintroduced into an area (it is questionable that they lived throuhout the SBE) when they are known killers of humans and their animals and the people being completely helpless because of the misapplication of the Endangered Species Act.
The Enviromental interest groups are using the Endangered Species Act to change this nation's style of government -- and if the public doesn't wake up to that fact the environmental groups will be successful
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"We're hoping he comes into the trap, and not the plant," Eric Campbell, water operator, said Tuesday.
A worker spotted the bear right outside the plant's front door one morning.
"He was tearing garbage apart until we moved the garbage can inside," Campbell said.
The garbage temptation is no longer available, but the bear was able to get to it two mornings in a row. A Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks warden brought the bear trap to the treatment plant on Sunday.
"The bear was around last night (Monday night,) but it didn't go in the trap," Campbell said.
Bears are most active now -- looking for, smelling out and going after food anywhere they can find it so they can put on fat that will see them through five or six months of winter hibernation.
All of the black bears seen recently in developed areas near Bozeman are near woods or creeks that were formerly solely bear habitat.
"Bears are pretty active right now," said Mark Anderson of Bozeman, a FWP game warden. "The bow hunters are kind of like the bears. They're pretty active right now, too."
Wildlife officials trapped two black bears last week, one on the Hyalite face and one on South Third Ave., Anderson said.
One black bear is still out and about in the Mystic Heights subdivision, said John Johnson. For the past three weeks, bears have been getting into trash cans along the subdivision's Jade Street, which has backyards bordering on the forest.
"Poor old guys, I think they're hungry," Johnson said. "We're living in their territory."
Although the bears' presence doesn't bother him, he said a neighbor who has small children is concerned.
Steve Lieberman, who lives near Mystic Heights, had a black bear walk through a screened window in his garage Aug. 27 to get to dogfood and birdseed. He had a different bear on his land the week before.
"We've had bears every year," Lieberman said. "They're just eating as much as they can. I don't have any problem with bears up here."
A few basic changes can help protect the bears from people and people from bears, Anderson said.
"Put the bird feeders away or put them where the bears can't get at them," he said. "Pet foods on decks draw bears. Put food in the garage."
The biggest problem is garbage, Anderson said. "If you have a garage where you can lock it up, that's the best plan."