Two sub-adult grizzlies wander into Powell area near sheep and cattle operations

POWELL — Two sub-adult grizzly bears have made their way to agricultural fields north of Powell, just 6.5 miles from City Hall. Traps were set Tuesday morning, but were still empty Wednesday.

The bears were first seen browsing in the fields near homes northwest of the city center on Monday near sunset by three local landowners. They photographed the bears and alerted officials with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Wildlife biologist Luke Ellsbury arrived to set two traps the following morning. Ellsbury is part of the department’s elite Large Carnivore Management team based in Cody. The traps are set in a field near the canal, just a few hundred yards from homes.

Jessica Moseley pulled into her driveway in a minivan filled with kids without noticing the two giant green traps across the street. Her husband Jeremiah was in the house working on a project. They were flabbergasted when learning two bears had been photographed in the agricultural field just to the east of their rural home.

“With us being so close to the bench here, we kind of figured that there’d be a chance potentially to run into dangerous animals,” Jeremiah said, saying he worries about rattlesnakes the most. “But not a grizzly bear. Never grizzly bears.”

“I don’t think we’ll go on any walks for a while,” Jessica added.

Yet, these are not the first bears to seek refuge east of the Cody area. Commonly called “pioneer bears” due to their efforts to seek new habitat, Large Carnivore Supervisor Dan Thompson said the team has trapped and removed bears in the Powell area previously, though never this close.

“We’ve had several years of expanding populations east of suitable habitat,” Ellsbury said. “We’re getting a decent population on Heart Mountain and across that Clark front. “Both are pretty likely spots they could have come from.”

Thompson said they have removed at least one bear in the Ralston area and a sow and two cubs made it to Byron in 2018, likely moving past Powell using the Shoshone River Valley, before being trapped and removed.

Sub-adult bears can’t compete with adult bears within their habitat and are often pushed into new areas. However, the carrying capacity of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is at or near its limits, Ellsbury said.

“Sub-adults are the first to get pushed out into new country,” he said.

Until Powell’s pioneer bears are captured, Game and Fish officials won’t rest easy due to the possibility of conflicts in the area.

“I think the conflict potential is definitely there. I mean, you have a lot of residential use, a lot of agricultural use, and not a lot of natural foods there. If we can get them out of there and move them somewhere a little more wild, it ups their potential of being wild bears,” Ellsbury said.

Not wanting a crowd of wildlife watchers disturbing the area, the department asked the location of the traps not be disclosed until after they are removed. However, generally speaking, they are in a field northwest of town.

Ellsbury suggests folks around Powell immediately remove attractants from the reach of bears, including pet food, bird feed, used grills and garbage cans.

“We’re kind of living in a day and age where, especially in Park County, bears can pop up anywhere,” he said. “Be vigilant is our standard messaging. Secure your attractants and definitely, if you’re seeing bears in areas where we don’t typically see bears, we really like to get those reports — especially if we think there might be a higher potential for human conflict. This is where we’re at with the bear population right now. Park County is kind of the hot zone.”

The news has farmers and ranchers spooked, especially as sheep ranchers are about to take delivery of thousands of delicious, young lambs and several cattle operations are in the immediate area.

“I figured we’d have wolves before grizzlies, but I guess that’s not the case,” said retired sheep rancher and former longtime Park County Predator Board president Tod Stutzman. “There’s nothing preventative you can do, right? You just have to react to the situation, and you know, here we are. We don’t have any sheep yet, but there’s dogs, there’s livestock, there’s kids — people and grizzly bears aren’t very compatible.”

One issue is, where does Game and Fish, and ultimately the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which, at least for now makes the final call on what will happen to the two bears, move the bears. (There is a proposal currently in a public comment period that would move Yellowstone area grizzly bear management to the states.)

Finding suitable habitat is getting tougher every year due to the carrying capacity of the ecosystem, Ellsbury said. Bears outside the DMA that have been previously trapped for relocation are often euthanized due to already overcrowded conditions in the region.

Of the 41 bears on the U.S. Geological Survey’s provisional list of known and probable grizzly bear mortality, 23 have been permanently removed (euthanized) from the habitat. Of those, about a dozen have been killed in management decisions in Wyoming. Two grizzly bears have been killed in traffic accidents as of the end of July and one grizzly bear drowned in the Heart Mountain Canal.

Grizzly bears are currently a protected species and are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

This is already an extremely busy year for the large carnivore team, Thompson said. Black bears and grizzly bear reports have increased significantly, possibly due to drought conditions and overpopulation.

“We’re seeing it in all directions,” he said during a Wednesday morning interview. “This is a natural extension of bears moving through the corridor. It’s pretty standard predator movement.”

However, Thompson emphasized that Game and Fish officials have not promoted Powell and the immediate surrounding area as suitable habitat for grizzly bears.

“We never have and we never will,” he said.