Montana women ranchers share challenges of living with grizzlies

Packing a pistol is a way of life for Trina Jo Bradley, a Dupuyer-area rancher along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front. The pistol is her protection from grizzly bears. She is on constant watch for the large bruins. “I compare it to living in a bad neighborhood in Chicago,” she said. “There’s never a time when we’re not on alert.” That includes when she takes her young daughter fishing on a nearby creek. Near YNP More than 300 miles to the south, just north of Yellowstone National Park, rancher Malou Anderson also lives with grizzly bears on the landscape, seeing them almost daily except when they are hibernating in winter. Anderson prefers to carry bear spray when working on her family’s ranch in the Tom Miner Basin. “We walk and ride differently on the landscape when we carry bear spray as opposed to a gun,” Anderson said. At certain times of the year, 10 to 15 grizzly bears will be visible on hillsides near the ranch, digging up plants to eat. Crowds of tourists will gather to photograph, sometimes trespassing, leaving litter and even flying drones over the bears. Gathering The two women spoke to a gathering of agricultural producers at a recent conference in Lewistown. Sponsored by the American Prairie Reserve, the meeting was meant to bring diverse people together from a variety of backgrounds to discuss different ways of living with wildlife. Anderson and Bradley provide contrasting approaches, attitudes and perceptions to living with grizzly bears on the edge of two of Montana’s wildest places. Yet they also share a common love of the state’s wide open spaces and a strong desire to preserve a ranching lifestyle under threat from a variety of modern challenges...MORE