After a midnight close encounter with nine grizzly bears on his family’s ranch, one Beaver Mines area business owner is thanking the family dog for alerting him to the alarming situation at hand. In the early hours of Sunday, Oct. 14, rancher Ryan McClelland made the call to the local Fish and Wildlife division. Not surprisingly, the sheer number of bears has made this case unprecedented for officers as well. Though used to living in bear country, the owner of McClelland’s Meat Processors—a small-scale meat packaging plant—said he has never seen so many bears at once. “There was a sow and three cubs who broke in one granary and a sow with two cubs that broke into another granary,” he said. “There was a boar in my meat department and there was a boar by our garage.” McClelland said he chased the two boars out of the yard and then while patrolling his property, he found the other bears as well. The family dog alerted him to the boar closest to the house. In the end, the bears destroyed part of the door to the meat department, chewed a customer’s quarter of beef and wrecked two granaries. Just as the property damage is worrisome, McClelland voiced concern for his family members. “We’ve got kids in the yard so anytime after dark, you’re a little bit worried,” he said. “When kids get on the school bus in the dark in the morning, it’s a little worrisome.” In fact, over the past five years, McClelland has seen the numbers of bears increase drastically. One bear was already removed from the property in early September. He explained the wooden granary bins had been on the property for close to five decades; this was the first time they had been broken into...more