October 3, 2000 Missoulian article by Michael Jamison: Suffering griz killed after collision with car.
CAG Comment
The environmentalists that have captured our federal land and resource management agencies want to put more grizzly bears in harms way by introducting/reintroducing them into the Selway Bitterroot Ecosystem (SBE) where there is little doubt there is not a quality habitat for grizzly bears.
End CAG Comment
NYACK FLATS - A grizzly-car accident claimed the life of a 6-year-old bear Saturday about 25 miles east of Columbia Falls on U.S. Highway 2.
The female grizzly was found by Erik Wenum, a wildlife conflict specialist with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
According to Wenurn, the bear was alive, but its lower back had been broken in the collision. Wenum killed the injured grizzly.
The bear was marked by wildlife managers in 1996, when it was captured close to residences in the Nyack area. It had stayed out of trouble since.
According to FWP wildlife manager Jim Willjams, the accident marks the first grizzly bear death this fall. In recent years, several grizzlies have been killed in the autumn months, as the bears scavenge lower valley terrain for food before taking to their winter dens. Poor huckleberry crops in the recent past have pushed bears to look for food in orchards, grain bins, root cellars and chicken coops, keeping wildlife managers hopping in response to bear trouble.
This year, however, there have been few grizzly encounters.
"It's been a very quiet fall," William's said. "Translation: Huckleberries, pure and simple. There's lots of food this year, and when you get berries, everything's fine. A good berry crop saves our bacon every time."
Some of the region's grizziies will search out denning sites before Halloween, he said, while others will amble the berry patches through Thanksgiving.
"We're almost out of the woods this year," Williams said. "But things can get really hot and heavy right at the end. Hopefully, it will continue to be a quiet year."
It's been somewhat less quiet this fall for wildlife managers charged with monitoring troublesome black bears. Although the number of problem black bears is down from recent years, Willjams said, some bruins have been in trouble despite the bumper berry crop.
"Mostly they're return customers," he said. "These are bears that learned some bad habits during the last two poor berry years."
The fact that grizzlies have been keeping out of trouble this fall, he said, has allowed wildlife managers to work more with those black bears, using dogs, rubber bullets, cracker shells and culvert traps in an attempt to break some of those bad habits.