Hiking Through a Grizzly History in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Brett French (Billings Gazette)
Grizzly bears have been praised and villainized, hunted to near extinction by early settlers and venerated by Native Americans and conservation groups. Such are the contradictions of the largest predator in the lower 48 states. Now concentrated largely in two populations near Glacier and Yellowstone national parks, the big bruins face heightened scrutiny as the federal government considers turning over grizzly bear management to states. Because of their growing populations, grizzlies also face new threats including increasing urbanization of wildlands and heightened outdoor recreation, in some cases by people unaccustomed to playing in predator country. How we deal with the species will be another defining moment in American conservation history.