Michigan voters were forced to choose between the two in 1996 when a measure that would have banned bear hunting with bait and dogs appeared on the ballot, courtesy of Fund For Animals, the
Great Bear Foundation, and the Michigan Humane Society.
Brian Peck, wildlife consultant with the
Great Bear Foundation and Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Ecosystems Project, says, "In my opinion, Carrie's work is top flight, real cutting-edge stuff that is saving grizzly bears." Hunt works with Tim Manley of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, who maintains his own dog team, but Peck would like to see more Karelian teams on the job, including two in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and two in Yellowstone.
According to Bear News, the publication of the
Great Bear Foundation, wildlife biologists chalk up the burgeoning numbers of black bears (the only species found in the East) to general declines in farming and timber production.
One of the people I know in Missoula, Montana, Lance Olsen (the Bear Man, I call him; he is head of the Great Bear Foundation) talks a lot about impacts.
The Great Bear Foundation has a fund that pays ranchers for livestock they lose to bears.
As Matthew Reid, executive director of The Great Bear Foundation in Montana, explains, "The problem with relocation is that bears are incredible homers.
The Great Bear Foundation thinks wildlife officials need the power of enforcement, "There has to be responsibility on the part of private landowners moving into bear habitat, and there has to be some leverage for conservation officials, either on the county or state level, to control sanitation problems," says Reid.