User:Haruth/Night of the Grizzlies

Night of the Grizzlies

Author	Jack Olsen
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Non fiction
Publisher	Homestead Publishing (First facsimile edition 1996)
Media type	Print (Paperback First facsimile edition 1996)
Pages	221pp (First facsimile edition, paperback, 1996)
ISBN	0-943-97248-5 (First facsimile edition, paperback, 1996)

Night of the Grizzlies is a non-fiction book by Jack Olsen, first published in 1969 by G.P. Putnam's Sons.

In the book, Olsen investigates the events surrounding the night of August 13, 1967, when two young women were separately attacked by grizzly bears in Glacier National Park, Montana. Both women, Julie Helgeson (19), of Albert Lea, Minnesota and Michele Koons (also 19), of San Diego, California died of their injuries. Prior to these attacks, no fatalities had occurred, due to incidents involving grizzly bears, within any of the U.S. National Parks. Olsen investigates the potential causes of both incidents, and expresses concern that (at the time of publication) the park service may not have learned the lessons of that night.

Background

Established in 1910, Glacier National Park covers some 1,600 square miles of northwest Montana. By the 1960s the park was one of the last wilderness refuges for black, brown, and grizzly bears. Despite this, there had only been eleven cases of grizzly bear attacks, none of which had resulted in death. The Park Service were content to maintained an improvised policy during this time: either shooting rogue bears, or transferring them to the more remote areas of the park when necessary.

By the mid sixties, increasing numbers of visitors to the area were putting pressure on the wildlife population. Human activity did not, however, deter the bears from foraging whatever source they could, and visitors, careless in discarding and storing foodstuffs, provided ample resource for the bears.

The Helgeson case

Granite Park Chalet

The Granite Park Chalet site had acquired an incinerator, installed by park engineers, in the hope of eliminating the build up of food waste which was attracting bears to the area. The acrid smoke that it produced was unpopular with guests, and it was too small to cope with the volume of garbage produced. Ironically, it was the presence of the bears at the chalet's garbage dump which was part of the attraction of the site. The more people who came to witness the bears foraging, the more garbage was inevitably produced.

Roy Ducat (18) and Julie Helgeson, both students working the summer season at the park, arrived at the Granite Park Chalet site on the evening of August 12. They set up camp at the recently designated official site, despite being warned by other campers that bears regularly came that way to forage at the garbage dump.

At around 12:45am, residents at the lodge were woken by a scream. Shortly afterwards, camper Don Gullett was roused by a badly injured Ducat, who explained that he had been mauled by a bear which had then dragged off Julie Helgeson. The injuries sustained by Ducat were attended to by a doctor and a surgeon, who happened to be staying at the lodge. Their initial efforts were limited by a lack of medical supplies at the site, and additional supplies had to be brought in by helicopter. Once Ducat's condition had been stabilised, the helicopter was used to evacuate him.

Despite a desire amongst the guests to organise a search immediately, the on site Park Service naturalist decided not to risk other visitors, but to wait until help arrived. By the time the helicopter reached the site, and a search party organised, over two hours had passed since the incident took place. They found Helgeson, still conscious, some 250 yards from the chalet. The severity of her injuries were such that the doctors present could only provide pain relief, and Helgeson died at 4:12am.

The Koons case

Lake McDonald

The camping areas on Lake McDonald and Trout Lake had experienced a problem at the start of the 1967 season with a rogue bear searching for food. Despite the two camps being separated by a 2,000 foot ridge and 3.5 miles of thick forest, it appeared to be the same animal that was active at both locations. Described as lean, perhaps sick, with a behaviour pattern of raiding camps for food, the bear showed unusual signs of aggression which disturbed regular campers. Despite several complaints, the park service failed to take action against the bear.

On August 12, a party of five arrived at Trout Lake to camp for the night. The party included Paul Dunn (16), working his first season at the park, Denise Huckle (20), accompanied by a dog named Squirt that she had found abandoned at the park, brothers Ray (23) and Ron Noseck (21), and Michele Koons. All were students and summer employees at various locations around the park.

The group caught some fish in the lake, and were preparing the meal when a bear raided the camp. Rushing to the safety of the lake shore, they could only watch as the bear ransacked their belongings, eating whatever food it could find. When the bear left it was dark, making a hike to a safer location impossible. Moving camp to the water's edge, the group decided to to erect a barrier of logs between themselves and the original camp, and to keep the fire blazing high all night in an attempt to keep the bear at bay.

The group were disturbed several times in the night by a bear close by. At 4:30am the bear entered the camp and started to maul the sleeping group. All four survivors managed to scramble free and escape, but Michele Koons was trapped in her bag. The survivors watched as she was mauled, bitten, and eventually dragged away by the bear.

The remaining group waited until 6:00am before running towards Lake McDonald ranger station to report the incident, finally reaching it some 2 hours later. The search party found the mutilated remains of Koons body in a shallow depression not far from the camp site.

Immediate effects of the attacks

Granite Park Chalet site

On August 13, a group of rangers were despatched to Granite Park Chalet with orders to eliminate every bear which frequented the area. Two bears which were known to visit the garbage dump were killed that night, but autopsy of the stomach contents showed that both had eaten only leaves and berries. Despite this, reports the following day indicated that the "killer bear" had been eliminated.

On August 14, the biologist on the scene realised that the food bait had been taken, indicating that a third bear must frequent the dump site. In the early hours of August 15, the rangers shot a third, female bear whose coat and claws proved to be deeply blood stained. Analysis of her stomach contents showed that she was the bear which took the bait food, but were inconclusive regarding the possibility that it was she who had attacked Helgeson. The blood stains on the coat and claws were assumed proof, despite later analysis indicating that the blood was not of human origin.

Trout Lake site

On August 14, a second team were despatched to Trout Lake. Their instructions were broader: to hike into Trout and Arrow Lakes by way of the Lake McDonald Trail and to kill every grizzly bear they encountered. Arriving at the Trout Lake camp site without encountering any bears, they set bait food and waited but no bear appeared.

The team spent the night at the Arrow Lake shelter, and in the early morning of August 15 shot a bear which had been stalking the cabin. The bear was an old, thin, female bear with worn down teeth. Stomach content analysis revealed a ball of hair which proved to be composed of 65 light-brown to dark-brown head hairs of Caucasian origin ranging from 3 to 5 inches, and it was concluded that this was the bear which had attacked and killed Koons.

Public reaction

A substantial demand for the extermination of all grizzlies in the park, and indeed the country, partly fed by a seemingly endless series of magazine articles, books and Grade D films, all painting the grizzly bear as a bloodthirsty, man-eating beast, surprised many. The National Park Service's mandate, to protect and preserve all wildlife in its care, clearly made a nonsense of such demands.

Glacier National Park service

A deep sense of shock prevailed among the staff. Press and public were excluded from the attack sites, and much of the information released by officials appeared to be deliberately irrelevant, citing such probably causes as multiple lightning strikes two days before may have crazed the bears. Park officials implicated the victims, indicating that the people had caused the bears to attack, alienated the press by accusing them of blowing the stories up, and denied knowledge of both the "bear shows" at Granite Park Chalet, despite their own naturalists witnessing it every night, and that the official camp site there had been established in a known grizzly foraging area.

Press reaction

The press was suspicious of official park statements, particularly those surrounding events leading up to the Granite Park Chalet incident. Much of the press focus was turned against the National Park Service.

Long term effects of the attacks

Official Report

The official report took a year to be issued by the park service, but rather than clarify and explain, it appeared to create the impression that a series of "curious events" had caused the deaths of Helgeson and Koons. Whilst admitting that grizzlies had been known to dine on table scraps, and that the Trout Lake bear had obtained food several times earlier at the same location, these facts were obscured by conjecture regarding possible effects of lightning strikes, cosmetics, atmospheric pressures, menstrual cycles, availability of natural food, and bear psychology.

The report failed to admit knowledge of the feeding practice at Granite Park Chalet, or that the park had established a camp ground at the chalet where grizzlies were known to forage, and that they had allowed a bear to terrorise campers at Lake McDonald and Trout Lake for over three months.

Change in policy

When the park opened for the summer season the following year, a rigorous system of bear control had been put in place. A "zero-tolerance" approach was adopted, with any bear coming into contact with humans more than once, or showing any signs of aggression, being summarily shot. A policy of closing trails at the first sign of bear activity, accompanied by new signs at every trail head warning of bears in the area, was imposed.

All the sources of garbage were cleaned up, including the site at Granite Park Lodge, and a strict policy was enforced on visitors to take their trash home. A new incinerator, large enough to handle the garbage disposal requirements of the chalet, was installed at the Granite Park Lodge site. The long standing rules against feeding bears were rigorously enforced for the first time.

Conclusion

Grizzly bears at Glacier National Park

Throughout the book, Olsen is critical of the park service for allowing practices to continue which brought visitors and grizzly bears into close proximity. He concludes that the real cause of the incidents was simply allowing human activity to occur in the few areas which had, until then, been the final refuge for the grizzly bear population of the region. Allowing the increase in numbers of visitors in the post war era, the park service had effectively denied the bears territory. Olsen points out that under such circumstances, it was almost inevitable that at least one death would result from contact with a grizzly bear.

The coincidence that two deaths should occur on the same night was, he concludes, almost equally inevitable due to the inaction that summer of the Park Service, who effectively ignored their own rules. Olsen points out that natural food, in the form of berries, was scarce that year, forcing the bears to forage in areas that they would normally try to avoid because of the presence of humans. By not adequately addressing the waste disposal problem at Granite Park Chalet, it was only natural that the bears would seek sustenance there. Locating an official camp site in the area was, Olsen argues, irresponsible.

Olsen was also critical of the park service training regime, indicating that they were aware that their temporary employees showed little interest in the safety briefings and chose to do little to address the problem. In addition, there was no method of reporting known (minor) incidents with bears which would potentially alert visitors of areas to avoid. These issues were particularly relevant to the Trout Lake incident: all members of the group were employees, yet were unaware of the problem bear in the area when they set out. Inexplicably, they had taken a dog with them, an action banned by park rules, and, at around 3:00am, offered a bag of cookies to the bear perhaps in the hope that this would be enough to make the bear leave.

Whilst supportive of the park service's new found adherence to old policies, Olsen indicates concern that they appeared to have overlooked the inherent contradiction enshrined in its double mandates of protecting the wildlife in its care and encouraging a continuing rise in visitor numbers. In the Glacier Nation Park report of 1968, the service notes that "bear incidents and management actions during 1968 continue to support the hypothesis that increases in visitor use are not reflected by increases in the number of bear incidents." Olsen argues that grizzlies and humans are incompatible in large numbers, and openly calls for a reduction in allowable visitor numbers. To do otherwise, he argues, is to invite additional tragedy or the loss of the grizzly bear.

After the book

The Glacier National Park Bear Management Plan, has evolved to directly address the training issues which Olsen expressed concern about. In addition, the exclusion of visitors from specific high risk areas during the season, and the regular dissemination, to all staff, of summaries of bear reports received, effectively eliminate the identified issues surrounding the 1967 incidents.

Visitor numbers have continued to rise, from an estimated 724,500 in 1960 to over 2,083,000 in 2007. As feared by Olsen, the sharp rise in visitor numbers has been matched by the number of incidents in which humans and grizzlies come into conflict.

Recorded grizzly sightings rose from 192 in 1967 to 2075 in 1994. The average number of reported bear charges without contact was 0.6 per year during the 1960's, but rose to 5.8 per year in the 1990s. Between the park's opening in 1910 and 1960, only three cases of injury resulting from grizzly bear attacks were recorded, rising to 12 incidents through the 1960s, 11 through the 1970's and a high of 26 in the 1980s. Official count of bear related fatalities at the park, all caused by grizzlies, have risen to 10.

There have been several reports prepared on the future issues facing the National Park Service since Olsen first highlighted the potential contradiction in the terms under which the parks operate. Notably, Professor Robin Winks of Yale University traced the precedence of the two opposing mandates, through various Acts of Congress which have been applied to the National Park system. In his final report he concludes that the protection of wildlife and habitat is the principal mandate in cases where this may conflict with the intention of allowing access by the people.

See also

• List of fatal bear attacks in North America
• Bear attacks
• Bear danger
• Grizzly Bear

Additional reading

• Glacier National Park centenary timeline. Accessed 2010 April 24
• Glacier Natural History Association, Man in Glacier, Ch.6., 1976. Accessed 2010 April 24
• National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. General Management Plan, Glacier National Park, 1999. Accessed 2010 April 24.
• Bert Gildart's eyewitness account of the night and its aftermath. Accessed 2010 April 24.