Page 34 - Wyoming's Grizzly Harvest - The Story the State Wants to Bury with the Bears

Wyoming’s Grizzly Harvest 760 IV O n the day Ellsbury was sentenced, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department had Ellsbury front- and-center in the Park County media, advising hunters on proper conduct in grizzly country. Carrying bear spray “or some other bear deterrent” and hunting with a buddy were among his recommendations. “Being alert while you’re out there is the big thing,” was Ellsbury’s quote in the Powell Tribune as he was about to be hit with a $10,000 penalty for committing a crime a rookie hunter would have had difficulty explaining. He did, of course, have his bear deterrent that fateful day, a Remington 700 .30-06. In September 2012, the Tribune reported that Ellsbury had advised a Kamm’s Corner resident “to pack a gun” or bear spray due to a grizzly combing the area for food. She needn’t have worried, as Ellsbury trapped what he called the “human-habituated and human-food-rewarded” three-year- old male grizzly near Heart Mountain on Wyo. 294 on the night of September 11, and it was “euthanized” the next morning. “He was beautiful, actually,” reflected the once- 34