Wenatchee River Salmon Festival

Thousands of people of all ages and cultures come to the Wenatchee River Salmon Festival each year to celebrate the return of the salmon to our northwest rivers. The rivers that are home to the salmon also provide sustenance for birds, frogs, salamanders, foxes, deer, bugs, bears and countless trees, bushes, and flowers. Salmon Fest is an outdoor educational adventure you will not want to miss. Their mission is to "Provide high quality natural resource education, promote outdoor recreation, and share the cultural significance of salmon to the people of the Northwest."


Since 1991 the Wenatchee River Salmon Festival has been hosted by the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery and the Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forest, with the help of other "spawnsors" and boosters. This year GBOP was on hand to talk about the relationship between bears and salmon. Julie Hayes spear headed the booth with help from Wendy Gardner and Dennis Ryan.


Clowning around was allowed.

Next year we hope to expand the educational activities for the school children who attend on Thursday and Friday. The Festival website will fill you in on all the details. Plan to join us in '08.

Northwest Passage Opens

Since mankind began exploring the seas in great sailing ships it has been the dream and passion of many captains to find the elusive Northwest Passage. And until this year, a dream it was, for the Northwest Passage has always been ice-bound.


The yellow line shows that the most direct route through the Northwest Passage has opened up fully for the first time since records began, the European Space Agency (ESA) says. An ice-free "Northwest Passage," a shipping route north of the Canadian mainland that could provide a shortcut for transit between the Atlantic and Pacific.

Using satellite data and imagery provided by the ESA, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) now estimates the Arctic ice pack to cover 4.24 million square kilometers (1.63 million square miles) -- equal to just less than half the size of the United States.
That figure is about 20 percent less than the previous all-time low of 5.32 million square kilometers (2.05 million square miles) set in September 2005.

Mark Serreze, senior research scientist at NSIDC, termed the decline astounding. "It's almost an exclamation point on the pronounced ice loss we've seen in the past 30 years," he said. Most researchers had anticipated the complete disappearance of the Arctic ice pack during summer months would happen after the year 2070, he said, but now, "losing summer sea ice cover by 2030 is not unreasonable."

While the loss of sea ice, like the Arctic ice pack, would not contribute to sea level rise, wildlife experts say it could alter the Arctic ecology, threatening polar bears and other mammals and sea life.
Scientists add that an ice-free Arctic could also accelerate global warming, as white-colored ice tends to deflect heat, while darker-colored water would absorb more heat.

But along with concerns, the melting Arctic also raises possible opportunities on business and political fronts. This summer, both Russia and the United States made efforts to inventory the potential mineral wealth on the ocean floor beneath the declining ice pack. Russia also sent a submarine to the North Pole to stake a symbolic claim to the Arctic as a part of the Russian nation.

Photo credit: European Space Agency

Rocky Spencer; in memorial

Rocky Spencer loved animals and in his capacity as the large carnivore specialist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife he had an opportunity to contribute to the conservation of these magnificent animals. His career came to an end September 8th in a tragic helicopter accident during an effort to relocate bighorn sheep from private property to a Pullman research facility for Washington State University.

Rocky's funeral was well attended by close to a thousand people. There was much said about his skill as a biologist, his dedication to wildlife and his long service to the state. He never got hardened by repeated work with wildlife and treated each animal with care and dignity. He made efforts to involve the public in his work and gave many the opportunity to see and touch wild animals that they never would have had the chance to in their lives. A young man stood up and said because of one of these trips with Rocky he was inspired to go to college and is pursuing a career as a wildlife biologist. I know many others present have felt the same inspiration to be better wildlife stewards if nothing else because of these unique experiences.

He was also a natural teacher, and spoke often with youth and adults about wildlife, especially large carnivores, cougars and bears. Through talks at schools and interviews with the media, he reached a wide audience.

Rocky initiated many programs within the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Foremost, Rocky pioneered the use of dogs in wildlife management with his Karelian bear dog Mishka. He is credited with starting their cougar research program, finding the first nesting loons in the state and , ironically, starting the helicopter program. He worked at WDFW for almost 30 years. There was a huge turnout of current and former employees to honor him.


Chris Morgan, director of GBOP, who knew Rocky well had this to say "This picture was taken while I was out doing bear capture work with him in 1998 in the Tolt River watershed east of Seattle. He's taking an anesthetized black bear back to it's capture location for release.

A warm heart, a caring smile, an easy laugh, and a love for life. There are few people around as special as Rocky. So many people were drawn in by his infectious ways. For me it was ten years ago when I arrived from distant shores to take up bear work in Washington. From moment one Rocky was never anything but kind, open, and giving, and I loved working with him and knowing him as a friend. Words can't do it justice. He will be so missed - professionally and personally - bears and cougars never had a better, more passionate, more sincere advocate. My warm wishes and condolences go to the many, many people whose lives he touched, and especially his family."

Rocky was an avid fisherman, treasure hunt diver, and marathon runner. We will all remember him as a jokester, with an endless sense of humor, a Cheshire grin and that certain twinkle in his eye.

To me he was a friend for 20 years and a mentor in my work as a biologist. We worked together on loon, cougar and elk projects, and most recently on joint bear presentations. He inspires me to continue this work with bears, to honor the fortune I have to be able to work with wildlife and to honor the value of educating people about wildlife and the environment. It was remarkable how many people were touched by his education efforts. They are far reaching, and enduring. I think we should all take what we do with more pride and value, and know that it is important and worthwhile.

You can click here to read what other people wrote about Rocky.

Julie L. (Hayes) Hopkins, GBOP Field Coordinator
Marine and Wildlife Biologist
Threatened and Endangered Species Specialist

Selway-Bitteroot Grizzly

Federal and state wildlife officials are investigating the killing of a grizzly bear in north-central Idaho, where the last confirmed sighting of the species was in 1946. That is over sixty years ago.

A hunter, from Tennessee, was on a guided trip hunting black bear with bait and killed the grizzly bear on Monday, September 3rd near Kelly Creek about three miles from the Montana border. Black bear hunting season opened Aug. 30.

The male grizzly weighed 400 to 500 pounds and was 6 to 8 years old. The hunter and guide skinned the carcass and brought it out on horseback so it could be confirmed as a grizzly by authorities. It is now in the possession of state fish and game department.

The bear killed was in the Selway-Bitterroot ecosystem that includes part of north-central Idaho and western Montana, and where wildlife officials have been expecting grizzly bears to repopulate on their own. The Selway-Bitteroot area is one of six recovery zones for grizzly bears in the lower 48 states. Prior to this sighting, no grizzlies were thought to be in the Selway-Bitteroot recovery zone.

The bear possibly came from the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem in western Montana or the Northern Continental Divide ecosystem that includes Glacier National Park. DNA tests are planned to try and determine the bear's origin.

Fish and Game officials had been telling black bear hunters that there were no grizzly bears in the area. He said hunters are now being warned that grizzlies are in the area, and that they are not legal to hunt.

Grizzlies are sniffing champs of the wild

A run-of-the-mill dog's sense of smell is roughly 100 times greater than a human's. A good hound dog's nose is perhaps 300 times better.

Dr. George Stevenson, a former neurosurgeon who specializes in bear physiology, has found that a bear's scent system is at least seven times better than the hounds. “A polar bear will walk 100 miles in a straight line to reach a female ready to breed,” he said. “That's what the bear's nose can do. They smell a million times better than we do.”

When humans think about their hometowns, they think in terms of visual maps - down this street to that avenue, turn left at the bank, right at the stoplight. But bears don't see things that way. To get to their favorite huckleberry patch, they don't follow the trail to the tree with the broken limb, and then turn left at the big mossy rock.

“No, they have an olfactory map.” Take the scent of the trail to the smell of the anthill, then follow the smell of water to the perfume of huckleberries. It is difficult, Stevenson said, for humans to imagine such a way of knowing, but for bears it's essential.

Each spring, when they emerge from the den, they are literally starving. There's no time to wander around and look for food, to look for tracks in the snow and to follow them, perhaps, to a protein meal. “They have to smell food over huge distances, and then go straight to it,” Stevenson said. “If they can't, they die.”


The black pad on the bear's snout, like a dog's nose, is wired with hundreds upon hundreds of tiny muscles. Bears can manipulate their nostrils the way dexterous people control their nimble fingers.

The smells then travel up the two 9-inch snout channels, with hundreds of times the surface area of a human's nose, to a spot where 10 million nerve strands and a billion receptor cells fire electrical signals directly into the brain. The large hippocampus in the bear’s brain “remembers” the scent, adding it to the mental map that the bear uses to “see” the world.

Stevenson was a neurosurgeon from 1965 until 1993, a pioneer of micro-neuro surgery. These days, he lives near Yellowstone National Park and is affiliated with the University of Wyoming.

Excerpts from an article of the ‘Missoulian’ by MICHAEL JAMISON

Fishing Buddies?

Not often does one find a Brown (aka Grizzly) Bear and a wolf fishing across from each other on the same river. These amazing shots of a wolf fishing in the interior of Katmai National Park were taken at Brooks River Falls.




Photo credit: Paul Stinsa.

Giving Voice to Bear

The role of the bear has always been prominent in American Indian initiation and healing ceremonies, in shamanic rites, in the quest for guardian spirits, and in many dances.


This photo is of a Bear Ceremony by northern Paiute people taken in 1967 at Jamestown, California.

All across North America, Indians have honored bears. When hunting tribes killed one, they spoke to its spirit asking it for forgiveness. They treated the carcass reverently. Among these tribes the ritual for a slain bear was more elaborate than that for any other animal. Bears were both feared and respected. They were famous for their fierce maternal devotion. They ate many of the same foods as the Native Americans. Because the Indian identified with the bear in many ways, they imitated it in their rituals.

Archival slide courtesy of: Adan E. Treganza Anthropology Museum, Dept of Anthropology San Francisco State University. Reference: “Giving Voice To Bear” by David Rockwell, Roberts Rinehart 1991.

Roads are NOT 'A Bears Best Friend'

The building of new roads in wilderness areas are a major threat to the conservation of bear habitat. Montana Forest Service and Environmental groups have found a compromise on fire safety plans and grizzly habitat.

In a court ruling July 30, 2007, a judge upheld a motion for protecting grizzly bear habitat by restricting the building of new roads in an area proposed for timber removal to reduce fire danger on the Gallatin National Forest. At the same time the judge allowed 2500 acres of trees to be removed to reduce fire danger and enhance escape routes for residents. Fast burning pine trees will be harvested and replaced with less-flammable aspen trees along the Boulder River. Judge Donald Molloy restricted road building for harvesting timber within 1000 acres of prime grizzly bear habitat.

Forest Service Ranger Bill Avey said they were “real happy” with the ruling. Michael Garrity with Native Ecosystems Council and Alliance for the Wild Rockies said the ruling upheld the goals of prime conservation areas for grizzly bears by restricting road building. The ruling will have far reaching effects for road building in grizzly bear habitat throughout north western states.

Source: Great Falls Tribune 7/31/07

Submitted by Julie L. (Hayes) Hopkins

Brother Bear sends Thanks

It’s Sienna’s Birthday. Instead of getting presents she has asked all of her friends to make a donation to the Grizzly Bear Outreach Project. She is three years old and is having a Brother Bear Birthday theme.


We bears hope you have the best birthday ever Sienna.

photo (c) Matthew Felton. www.matthewfelton.com

Keepin 'em Wild

40 Concrete Elementary School students submitted entries for the Upper Skagit Bear Smart Poster Contest. There were so many creative and colorful posters to choose from that it was apparent that everyone was a winner. Entries were received from the K-3 students and from Grades 4-6.



Here are some examples of posters that received awards. In the Grade 4-6 category was Madeline Corn, Spencer Hindsley and Cheyenne Gracey. K-3 entries included posters from Mindy Sutton, Haley McNealey and Emma Reidel.



The contest was organized and overseen by a community group lead by GBOP staffer Nan Laney.

Wild Bee Swarm

We all know that bears like honey. Winnie the Pooh was addicted to the stuff. Bears get their honey from wild bee hives or by raiding a bee keepers’ hive. Bee keepers can protect their hives from bears by surrounding them with electric fencing.

Wild bees live in hollow trees. From time to time the queen bee decides to relocate the hive. She takes off in search of a new home and all the bees follow her. When she stops the hive swarms around the queen to protect her. The above photo was taken at a camp site in Pearrygin Lake State Park near Winthrop in the Methow Valley. Fortunately no bears were following this swarm. When bees are swarming they do not sting and can be approached without fear.


A local bee keeper was called in by the park ranger to remove the hive. He placed a box below the swarm and shook the tree causing the queen to fall onto the top of the box. All the other bees followed her into the box. The bees had a new home and the keeper got a new hive.

6th Graders, Bears and Camp

What do these three things have in common? Why Camp ‘D’ of course. For over 50 years the sixth grade class at Omak middle school has spent a week at Camp Disautel in the forests of the Colville Reservation. For the first time the 6th graders at the Paschal Sherman Indian School attended the camp.


It’s not all fun and games. They spend a lot of time attending seminars to learn about stewardship of the environment. Issues explored include water conservation, soil management, wilderness safety and survival skills, creating a ‘Leave No Trace’ camp and ‘yuk’- noxious weeds. Last but not least they learn about bears of the North Cascade Ecosystem.

Bears use to be common visitors at the camp before attention was placed on removing garbage daily. There were some pretty exciting moments when bears walked thru the camp to raid the lunch leftovers.


Virginia Hammer involved all the kids in a skit to show how ‘not’ to set up a camp in the woods. She is a back country ranger for the Okanogan National Forrest. One student dressed as a bear and raided the campsite at night. The campers wished they had not left food in their tent.

Many past 6th graders who are now adults remember Camp ‘D’ as one of the highlights of their school experiences. Many thanks to Randy Langseth and the other teachers for inviting GBOP to this year’s camp.

Hillspring Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre Released 4 Grizzly Cubs-Dawon Creek, BC

Following is an extract from a website update written by Barb Murray at http://bearmatters.com.

History was ‘officially’ made on Weds, May 16, 2007! A North American bear rehabilitor, Leona Green, has successfully raised 4 orphaned grizzly cubs (2 female), taking them from 15-20lbs in July ‘06 to their release weight of well in excess of 100lbs. The bigger size for their age class will give the cub’s a fighting chance with preditory carnivores. The cub’s diet consisted of high protein from donated venison and salmon, grains, veggies and fruit ( including natural berries previously picked and frozen). Leona Green has raised and released two female grizzlies in 1996 but they were not officially counted by the authorities at that time.

Grizzly bear rehabilitation is done in other parts of the world like Russia and Romania but North American authorities have been shy to embrace it for ‘liablity’ reasons ( I believe?). Thanks to some progressive and compassionate Conservation Officers in Northern BC Leona Green was able to help give these four cubs plus two black bears a second chance this year. She has now rehabbed over 100 bears successfully over 30years (not one of the bears have shown up and caused problems).

Girl Scout's become Bear Aware

On a cool weekend in April, a hardy bunch of Girl Scouts (250 of them) gathered in Carnation, WA for their annual encampment event. They built rain shelters, canoed the lake, created works of art and performed skits around the campfire. A highlight was the retiring of an American flag in a special ceremony.

GBOP’s own Julie Hayes lead forest nature hikes for the Brownies, the Junior campers and their parents. Bear safety and biology were on topic, and many thoughtful questions were asked by campers and parents alike. As it turns out, many of the families had experienced some bear activity (mostly in garbage cans) in their neighborhoods. GBOP brochures packed full of useful information on safe camping, hiking and home sanitation were passed out to extend the learning at home.

Bear Affair Weekend

Woodland Park Zoo and GBOP hosted what is quickly becoming an annual event anticipated by both patrons of the zoo and the bears that live there. Keema and Denali, both 950 pound Brown (Grizzly) Bears put on quite a show. With donated equipment from REI, the zoo staff, GBOP and invited members of the public set up a campsite in the bear compound. Everything was done incorrectly to demonstrate what bears can do to your camp if you leave food nearby or worse yet, in your tent.


The bears went thru the camp systematically looking for and finding all of the hidden treats.


In about the same time as it takes to set up camp, the bears had completely demolished everything. People watching the camp destruction quickly understood the value of setting up a proper camp.


Over 2,000 people visited the Bear Affair activities. Everyone enjoyed themselves, but no one had as much fun as Keema and Denali. You can check out a You Tube video of the event at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CARM1-ZQYb4.

The GBOP website has lots of tips for living and camping in bear country: http://www.bearinfo.org/tips.htm.

Photo credits by Dennis Ryan and Wendy Gardner

Back Country Horsemen Spring Ride

Each spring members of the Back Country Horsemen of Washington get together at Beaver Creek campground in the Methow Valley to spend a weekend of riding, socializing and general togetherness. This year was no exception. Over 300 folks camped out and had a great time. The official Saturday ride attracted 270 horses and their riders for an eleven mile round trip. A stop at the midway point allowed horses to rest and riders to enjoy a catered steak dinner hosted by the Methow Chapter of the BCH. There are 36 chapters with over 3,000 members in Washington State.


After the ride the care of the horses are the top priority. Kids learn this at an early age. The event was also an opportunity for GBOP to hand out material and discuss bear safety in the back country. If you spend much time in the woods you are likely to encounter bears sooner or later. Back Country Horsepeople share the wilderness that bears call home. The proper safety tips can mean the difference between a fun bear experience and a person-bear conflict.


Looking back on the weekend most of use can't wait till next year.

First Tuesday Presentation

The Methow Conservancy invited GBOP to give a presentation entitled "Bears of the North Cascades and Beyond" at their April First Tuesday event held at the Twisp River Pub. The house was packed as the lights went down and Mary Kiesau introduced Chris Morgan and Dennis Ryan from GBOP.

Chris shared his experiences traveling the world to study bears. From Norway to the Andes, Pakistan to the Rocky Mountains, the audience took a virtual tour of the global state that bears find themselves in today's gloal warming trend.

Dennis followed that act up with a discussion of bears of the North Cascade Ecosystem. Do they indeed exist? What are their numbers, habits and habitat? How can this habitat be protected and the declining number of North Cascade Grizzlies be recovered to a viable population?

A hearty discussion followed the presentation. Obvisouly the public was informed and intested in the plight of Washington's bear population. Many thanks to the Methow Conservancy for hosting the presentation.

Wildlife Highway Crossings

Hidden cameras let you spy on animals as they go about their business.

Dr. Tony Clevenger of the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University has research video cameras that record the passage of a variety of large mammals using Banff National Park’s wildlife crossing structures under the TransCanada Highway. To view video clips of grizzly bear, black bear, mountain lion, elk and deer go to this website:


http://www.coe.montana.edu/wti/road_ecology/whats%20new.php

The Washington Department of Transportation has future plans to build wildlife under passes on I-90 in the North Cascades area.

REI bear hugs GBOP

Yes, REI has embraced GBOP. Over 140 people gathered at REI recently to listen to a presentation by Chris Morgan, co-director of GBOP.

Chris has traveled the world in search of Brown Bears (aka Grizzly Bears) and the study of the habitats in which they live. His slide show was a virtual feast of wild bears in wild places. From Spitsbergen to Spain, Canada to Russia, bears rule the wilderness. Yet, without exception their habitats are threatened by development and encroachment. Looming on the horizon is the mother of all threats – GLOBAL WARMING. In Spain the bears are not hibernating. In the artic bears rely on sea ice to hunt their major source of food, the seal, and this ice is receding further and further north with each passing year. Soon the sea ice is predicted to disappear entirely in the summer months.

Thinking globally and acting locally has never been more relevant. In the North Cascades ecosystem grizzly bears have declined to the point that less than 20 survive. This is not a population that is likely to survive without help. The North Cascades was designated a grizzly bear recovery zone in 1983 by the US Department of Fish and Wildlife. After the presentation, the audience had many questions concerning recovery plans for North Cascade grizzlies.

GBOP thanks REI for their support in our continuing education programs and for their sponsorship of bear awareness weekends. Mark your calendar for April 21 and 22 to join us at the Woodland Park Zoo where the resident brown bears will be the center of attraction.

Photo credit Dennis Ryan

No rest for the weary

Did you know that bears are an umbrella species? The health of a bear population is a reflection of the health of the ecosystem in which they live. Did you know that bears hibernate throughout the winter? Talk about a good nights sleep! Did you know that bears have stopped hibernating in the mountains of northern Spain? This may be one of the strongest signals yet of how much climate change is affecting the natural world.

In a December in which bumblebees, butterflies and even swallows have been on the wing in Britain, European brown bears have been lumbering through the forests of Spain's Cantabrian mountains, when normally they would already be in their long, annual sleep.

Bears are supposed to slumber throughout the winter, slowing their body rhythms to a minimum and drawing on stored resources, because frozen weather makes food too scarce to find. The barely breathing creatures can lose up to 40 per cent of their body weight before warmer springtime weather rouses them back to life.

Please Click here to read the complete article.

Why do we care about sleeping bears? Besides the fact that we might globally warm ourselves right out of existence, unlocking the secrets of hibernating grizzlies may help people live longer and stay healthier.

Mike Stark writes in the Billings Gazette that researchers for years have been trying to understand how the bears survive such a long, slothful period without suffering lasting ill effects.

In particular, scientists are looking at what the napping bears can teach about staving off heart disease, extending the viability of transplant organs and maintaining muscle tone in bedridden patients or astronauts in space.

Much of the research is happening at Washington State University, where 10 captive grizzly bears, some of them from the Northern Rockies, are studied year-round.