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I am enamored of bears.  For as long as I can remember there’s been a love affair, a fetish, a respect, an honoring.

It’s a wondrous, humbling, mystical, and magical experience to see bears in the wild – living large and well, wild and free.

“If you talk with the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them, you will not know them, and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears one destroys.”
– Chief Dan George

“The grizzly is a symbol of what is right with the world.”
– Charles Jonkel

“Bears are not companions of men, but children of God, and His charity is broad enough for both. Yet bears are made of the same dust as we, and breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. A bear’s days are warmed by the same sun, his dwellings are overdomed by the same blue sky, and his life turns and ebbs with heart-pulsings like ours and was poured from the same fountain…”
– John Muir

“Grizzly bears are the true monarchs of the wilderness. As a predator at the top of the food chain and an indicator species, they are a symbol of a healthy ecosystem. Where they roam undisturbed by humans, wilderness exists. By preserving grizzlies in the wild, we also preserve the habitat they need to survive. Grizzlies are ninety-nine percent gone from the lower forty-eight states as compared to populations from a century ago. Keeping these animals as a part of the natural ecosystem is healthy for all species, including humans.”
– Grizzly Discovery Center (www.grizzlydiscoveryctr.com)