There are many areas here in MT as well that are way over populated..there is an area only an hour from town that has bow hunters hammered every year by griz..it is a very well known fact there are a lot of griz in that area but people keep going back bow hunting and people keep getting mauled..weird??

I was told years ago having breakfast one morning with the local sheriff in W Yellowstone that there are many more griz than the Feds the state FWP let you know there is..ironically had a retired office of the State FWP also tell me this same thing..so, if it looks like a fish, smells like a fish, its probably a fish...

I have bumped into them on numerous occasions hiking...but always have had a firearm along..will NOT go hiking in griz country without one..little woman carriers pepper spray...I am not convinced it works better than lead, as lead still moves forward in a 30 mile per hour wind in your face when the bear is charging you..IMHO.. have many friends who have run into them hunting, hiking, etc as well...

Amazingly for the 25 years I have lived here the number of adult griz has virtually remained the same per the FWP..wierd, they must be the only species that doesn't reproduce and yet the incidence of running into them is ever increasing...now, they are even having issues in Yellowstone..as hikers, campers have been getting killed by them ..so the attitude may be shifting a bit..to a more logical stance one would hope...if emotion could just be kept out of it along with personal agenda's and let the TRUE numbers speak for themselves...but the LIBS will never let that happen..and sue away they will..

Libs are totally willing to hear your point of view as long as it agrees with theirs..and when its not, the fight is on...so, let the games begin..

Ripp