Having grizzly bears for neighbors is just a reality near Cody, Wyoming

Seeing a grizzly bear well beyond the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park, east toward Cody, used to be a big deal.

But in recent years, things have changed along the North Fork, a semi-inhabited area between Cody and the Shoshone National Forest boundary, just east of the park.

Now the sight of a grizzly bear slinking through the forest and sage, or even into someone's backyard, means it's another Tuesday, some North Fork residents told Cowboy State Daily.

“If I saw a bear outside my house, and I look out the window right now, and if I saw one, I would just say to my wife, 'There's a bear.' It’s no big deal to see them anymore,” famous outdoor writer Jim Zumbo said. “It used to be, but now it’s not.”

He has lived in the North Fork, near Wapiti, a small unincorporated community, for 35 years and remembers when grizzly bears were virtually unknown in the area.

Richard Jones is a retired Forest Service and National Park Service ranger who has lived for about nine years on the North Fork, just near the border of the Shoshone National Forest.

“There have been two or three bear sightings in my neighborhood in the last two or three weeks,” he said.

And just last week, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department had to capture and relocate a male grizzly bear that was killing and eating livestock near Cody.

Bears all over Yellowstone landfills

Jones first moved to Wyoming in 1953. His father was a park ranger in Yellowstone Park.

At the time, grizzly bears were extremely rare. They had been pushed almost to the brink of extinction in the Lower 48, and only a few remained in or around Yellowstone.

It was a different story with black bears, Jones said. People had a terrible habit of feeding them and they also gathered around the open dumpsites in the park.

“Black bears were everywhere. And then they were a problem, because people were feeding them,” Jones said.

Grizzly bears in the Lower 48 were placed under federal endangered species protection in 1975 so they would have a chance to recover.

Grizzlies are back in a big way

And they recovered, Jones said.

The target grizzly bear population has been set at approximately 700 to 800 bears throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). This includes the park and surrounding wilderness areas of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.

Official estimates now put grizzly bear numbers at about 1,000 in the GYE, plus about 1,000 more in Montana's northern Continental Divide ecosystem, radiating out from Glacier National Park.

Jones said he suspects there are probably many more grizzly bears, perhaps as many as 1,500 in the GYE alone. This could explain their ever-increasing presence and visibility in the North Fork.

“The area is one of the grizzly bear’s prime habitats,” he said. “The recovery of the grizzly bear has been a tremendous success. »

The question of whether to remove grizzly bears from federal protection and turn their management over to states remains a controversial topic.

Many, like Jones, argue for removal from the list, citing the numbers.

Others argue that until there is complete genetic exchange between grizzly bear populations in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide, the species will not fully thrive here.

Repopulating central Idaho's remote Bitterroot region with grizzly bears is the key to doing that, conservationists say.

Naturally a plains animal

North Fork isn't the only place in and around Park County that has seen more grizzly bears, Zumbo said.

They have been spotted in open agricultural areas between Cody and Powell and around the base of Heart Mountain.

It makes sense that grizzly bears would head to such areas, Jones said. After all, it was originally a plains species.

It remains to be seen how far grizzly bears might extend into Wyoming's Prairie County.

But in Montana, they reclaimed the high plains, pushing all the way to the Missouri Breaks.

Zumbo said he and his family were never really afraid of grizzly bears, but would sometimes go camping in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains just so they could relax the “camping in grizzly bear country” protocols.

But that may no longer be an option either, Zumbo said.

After years of rumors of grizzly bears being spotted in the Bighorns, the presence of at least one grizzly bear was confirmed in April. Wyoming Game and Fish Department wardens killed the bear, which was feeding on livestock near Ten Sleep.

Take precautions

Zumbo said he started seeing grizzly bears around his home sporadically about a decade ago, and their presence has been increasing ever since.

He remembers one of his first close encounters occurring several years ago.

“Our dogs were on the back porch and barking like crazy. I went to check and there was a grizzly bear rolling across the back lawn,” he said.

Over the years, grizzly bears and humans have learned to share the North Fork, Zumbo said, adding that social media has helped keep them out of trouble.

“We'll message each other in Facebook groups, 'Bear, head over,'” he said.

There have been remarkably few serious grizzly bear attacks in the area, Zumbo said. He cited a death in June 2010.

Ewin Frank Evert of Cody was killed by an adult male grizzly bear who had apparently just recovered from a tranquilizer and examination by biologists.

The attack took place near Evert's cabin along Kitty Creek in the Shoshone National Forest near Cody. Evert's widow later unsuccessfully sued the federal government, claiming the trapping and examination site had not been adequately marked with warning signs beforehand.

Zumbo said he was taking the usual precautions.

“If I'm cutting firewood in my lumber yard, I'll have a handgun on the tailgate of my pickup truck, just in case,” he said.

Jones said he, too, usually had a gun and/or bear spray on hand.

What worries him is the possibility of throwing a grizzly bear at point-blank range, which usually triggers serious attacks, like that of Shayne Patrick Burke, 35, a Massachusetts resident who was recently mauled in the Grand Teton National Park.

This attack ended when the grizzly bit his bear spray, shattering it in his face. The attack was seen as a case of a mother grizzly defending her cub, and the National Park Service chose to take no action against the bear.

Burke is expected to make a full recovery from his injuries.

Just a fact of life

Jones said when grizzly bears started showing up in large numbers on the North Fork, there were a lot of problems. Bears found themselves in poorly stored supplies of livestock feed, etc.

There are now more grizzly bears than ever, but fewer problems, he said.

For that, he credits Game and Fish with helping educate residents on the basics of life in Grizzly County, like proper storage of grain, pet food or other possible temptations.

The current concern is the ever-increasing number of tourists who travel to and around Yellowstone's backcountry and may not be familiar with the bears, Jones said.

“There are more bears here than ever before, and more and more people are coming to Bear County. So do the math,” he said.

Other carnivores also appear to be moving in, Jones added.

“I might see a grizzly bear, followed by a few wolves, followed by a few mountain lions,” he said.

But that's no reason to move, Zumbo and Jones said.

“I don’t live in fear here,” Zumbo said.

Jones said if grizzly bears were delisted and some limited hunting was allowed, it could help instill in them a healthy fear of humans.

But worry about North Fork grizzly bears doesn't keep him up at night. He still considers it a safe place to live.

“There’s a dangerous animal, but I’m more afraid of going to an ATM in Denver than I am of walking around the North Fork with grizzly bears,” he said.

Marc Heinz can be reached at [email protected].