Got Grizzlies? The primary factor limiting grizzly bear recovery is human-caused mortality. We’re helping prevent these conflicts through our electric fence incentive program. Learn more about how we’re protecting people and bears at defenders.org/got-grizzlies
Video Transcript:
Russ:
Hey there. I’m Russ Talmo, with Defenders of Wildlife – program associate out of our Northern Rockies and Plains region. And today we are out here celebrating our 500th electric fence project through our electric fence incentive program. This is a real milestone and after 11 years of this program, we have helped over 500 landowners and residents build electric fences to secure bear attractants on their properties.
Russ:
Defenders Wildlife is dedicated to the recovery of Grizzly Bears across the lower 48 states. And part of that has been the development of this program, the Electric Fence Incentive Program. And that really the origins of that was identifying the problem for grizzly bears, which was human bear conflicts, causing Grizzly Bear mortality and that was a very real impediment to Grizzly Bear recovery.
Russ:
And most folks get that, that they live in a place that also has bears, has wildlife. And most folks are willing to go that extra mile to help prevent those conflicts from happening and sort of promote this coexistence idea.
Rae Brown:
I called Russ up and I said, “I’ve got a bear who’s in my apple tree and it’s breaking it up.” And he then proceeded to very calmly and very nicely say, “Well, we can help you with this. We can help you get an electric fence put up. We can help you even install it if you need help, and we’ll pay for half of it.”
Rae Brown:
Now that we have a fence, I’m ready to plant more trees.
Russ:
Bears can be very damaging when it comes to fruit trees. They’re not, you know, nimbly picking one apple a time off a tree. They’re taking whole limbs off of it. The Browns are a great example – pictured behind me here you can see their fruit orchard. This is a very normal thing that a lot of Montana residents have, fruit trees in their yard.
Russ:
They also have a chicken coop and they have also had bear conflicts here at their residence before so they were very motivated to make those conflicts stop and to build an electric fence. And they’ve done a fantastic job. By preventing conflicts with bears we’re not only helping bears, but we’re also helping landowners and residents here. And by doing so, we hope to be creating more acceptance of this shared landscape idea.
Russ:
Thanks to your support, we’ve been helping people and bears for over a decade now with our 500th electric fence.
