Bears in the house, grizzlies on the bait, and a helicopter in the wrong place

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Boots by the door. Rifle in the truck. Coffee going cold in the cupholder. It's October in Idaho, boys.

Seasons are in full swing across the Gem State. Elk and deer are on, the birds are flying, and bear hunters are still out there grinding. If you're holding a tag, quit reading emails at the office and go fill it. One reminder from a guy who's seen plenty of opening mornings: check your unit regs before you go. "I thought it was open" has never gotten anybody out of a citation.

Now pour another cup. The West has been busy.

You know that bump in the night you always tell yourself is nothing? In Salmon, it was a bear.

Early on October 2, a 14-year-old girl in the Sunset Heights neighborhood woke her parents, Brian and Kim Heidemann. A young black bear was standing on a cooler outside her bedroom window, trying to get in. It couldn't, so it went around and came in through the back door.

Both girls' bedrooms were back there, and Brian didn't stop to think about it. He launched himself at the bear, and the two of them went tumbling into the backyard in a full-on wrestling match. Kim jumped in right behind him. They fought it off, got back inside, and called 911.

The bear won a few rounds. Brian ended up with a bone-deep cut on his arm and deep wounds to his head and torso. He was flown by helicopter to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls for surgery. Kim was hurt too.

Here's the part that matters. The bear had a mom and a sibling, and the family had been raiding a neighbor's chicken coop for a while before this happened. Fish and Game had set traps nearby, but the bears switched routes. After the attack, a neighbor shot the sow, and a houndsman found her dead. Fish and Game trapped and put down both juveniles the next morning.

🎯 My take: That bear didn't wake up and decide to break into a house. It learned, one chicken at a time, that people mean food. Every unsecured coop, trash can, and bird feeder in bear country writes a check that somebody else ends up paying. Lock it up.

👉 Read the full story (East Idaho News) | IDFG report

Imagine checking your trail cam expecting a nice black bear and finding a full-grown grizzly instead. That's what happened to a hunter at his bait site near Skookum Saddle last month. It's the third confirmed grizzly near Coeur d'Alene this year. Biologists think it wandered down from the tiny Cabinet-Yaak population, and recovery advocates are calling it a sign the bears could be expanding.

North Idaho hunters, read this twice: grizzlies are federally protected, and shooting one is a felony. Don't go by color or size. Look for the shoulder hump, the dished face, and the short round ears. If you're not 100% sure, don't pull the trigger.

👉 Read more (Cowboy State Daily)

Fourteen. One property. On September 24 and 25, FWP wardens checked out a tip that someone north of Bozeman was feeding wild black bears. They found bears so food-conditioned they had stopped eating natural food and lost all fear of people. FWP called it a human safety risk and euthanized all 14.

One FWP official put it plainly: 14 bears at one property is not normal. Feeding bears is illegal in Montana, and the investigation is still open.

That's the Salmon story times fourteen. Somebody probably thought they were doing the bears a favor.

👉 Read more (Daily Montanan)

You can't make this stuff up. Two non-resident hunters flew a private helicopter into a remote corner of eastern Utah, skipped the locked gates, and landed right on private CWMU land, where their general-season any-bull tags were worthless. Then they shot two bulls just 75 yards apart.

The investigation turned up more. Utah DNR also found:

They paid significant fines and restitution and face hunting license suspensions. Turns out a bigger budget can't buy you out of the rulebook.

👉 Read more (KUTV)

A University of Wyoming economist, Jake Hochard, put a price tag on Wyoming's elk, mule deer, and pronghorn. He treats the herds like an investment account that pays out every year in hunting, viewing, and ecosystem value, then subtracts the costs, like Game and Fish budgets and vehicle collisions. The total comes to just under $6 billion.

The breakdown:

The plot twist: over a recent stretch, mule deer numbers fell by more than half, but their value dropped only 6%. The Jackson elk herd shrank 32% while its value climbed 25%.

🎯 My take: I like anything that makes politicians take wildlife as seriously as oil and gas. But when a herd loses a third of its animals and the spreadsheet says it's worth more, that's a warning sign, not good news. Keep an eye on how this number gets used when Hochard presents it to lawmakers in December.

👉 Read more (WyoFile)

I spent 18 years on the river, and I learned one thing for sure: wild animals that figure out people are easy don't stay wild for long.

It starts small. Scraps off the dock, a coop with no fence, a pile of corn out back "so we can see 'em." It ends with a bear coming through your back door, or 14 bears dead on one property.

So this October, hunt hard, hunt clean, and don't feed anything you aren't planning to shoot.

See you out there.

— Matt

Know somebody who'd like this? Forward it. Got a story from your hunt this fall? Hit reply. I read every one.