Night of the Grizzly's Report

        After reading Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olson, my perspective on Glacier National Park bear management dramatically changed. The book, as well as the Granite Park Chalet hike, proved the major differences in bear control between 1967 until now. I strongly believe Olson did an excellent job in portraying the traumatic events of August 13, 1967. He wrote the book based on facts and went into great detail based on information given by involved participants. Night of the Grizzlies taught me much I never knew about the Grizzly population of Glacier National Park. I was educated on how poor bear control can result in the worst case possible, fatality, and how we as the human race have evolved in bear management. If a student was interested in Grizzly bears or that of Glacier itself, I would defiantly recommend Olson's book to them.

            Prior to 1967, I feel as if Grizzly control was something only people of close encounters thought was necessary. For the park rangers and officials, an attack had never occurred so why would they need to take charge of the bear population? The idea of a mauling was not even a thought process when the discussion came up. My feelings towards Grizzly management prior to 1967 are simple, they had no idea with no history to back them up so they were innocent. To them, an attack was something that could never happen, not even an idea. It had never happened before, so why did they need to do anything about these bears? The park service had no clue as to if bears even would attack a human in Glacier National Park. Basically, the bear management was extremely poor but it was not as much a fault to the park as we think. I believe the Night of the Grizzlies occurred because of this poor management. We had mangy bears running around living off of human goods and relying on those human goods. Sooner or later, the goods would not be present and the human would be the good. As a result, the bears rip into two girls on the night of August 13, 1967 by coincidence and make a meal out of them.

            Since 1967, there have been a very dramatic and serious number of changes to the parks bear management. When the two girls were killed on the very same night, the park opened its eyes in what was needed to be done. Of these include:

Before 1967                        

·         Open garbage dumps

·         No bear education

·         Dirty campgrounds

·         Hunting seasons

·         Garbage cans

·         Human Priority

After 1967

·         Closed dumps, garbage trucked out of park

·         Bear education

·         Separate places to camp, eat, cook/ bear boxes and poles

·         ESA protection

·         Bear proof garbage cans

·         Bear priority

            I strongly feel that the Grizzly bears of Glacier National Park belong in the Glacier ecosystem. For the bears that roam the region, this is their home. There is not a doubt in my mind that the bears don't belong here. While hiking the Garden Wall onto the Highline Trail to Granite Park Chalet and down the loop, it was extremely apparent as to why these bears are present. Water soaked regions and berry bushes cover the landscape provide Grizzlies with a nurturing source of food and water. Berry bushes range from huckleberries to thimbleberries to gooseberries to snowberries. The thought of a bear running away from this source is simply ridiculous.

            After the fieldtrip to Glacier, my overall feelings about the park changed in a couple of different ways. For one, my feelings of safety and security were no longer present. In the past, hiking in this country seemed safe and under control but after reading Night of the Grizzlies and seeing how park management had to dramatically change, my perspective became apparent that bears are unpredictable and there is always a slight chance of having an encounter. Second, my ideas about the park rangers changed. Before I had believed them to be trail clean up and people directors but now I see them as brave individuals that serve more of a purpose than this. They protect the bears and the people and keep harm out of either's way the best to their abilities.

            After reading the 40th anniversary story, "Terror in the Night", and viewing the PBS DVD in class, my thoughts were that of coincidence as well as stupidity. How could two women be killed by two different bears in the same night where nobody had even been attacked in the 40 years the park was open? It made me reflect on how bear management was poor but at the same time not the parks fault as I described above. I enjoyed greatly the opinions and thoughts of all the different individuals who were involved.