The day before my planned trip to Glacier National Park I received a phone call from a fellow photographer, he told me that he had just returned from Glacier and that there were a lot of bears also he was surprised that in the time he was there he did not see a park ranger.

When I arrived, I had not been in Glacier 10 minutes when I drove into a bear jam and discovered a sow and her two cubs up on a hillside with their noses buried in the bushes devouring as many berries as they could. No more than a few minutes had passed when a ranger arrived and moved everyone back 100 yards. This was a Thursday. Friday morning there was another bear jam watching yesterdays sow and cubs who had returned to the same berry patch. Part of the bear jam were 4 men with cameras, who began shouting and whistling to get the bears to raise their heads. After the second time they did this, I felt their actions were harassing the bears so I went and told them to cease and desist. I never saw a ranger the whole of the day.

Saturday morning I drove up on another bear jam and standing in the group was a park ranger. He was wearing the green uniform but did not have the brown leather belt with a gun, bear spray, two way radio, etc, etc. Nor was he driving a white truck with the green National Park Service logo/identification. Standing there he was answering questions and as the bear jam got larger he also kept the traffic moving. The next thing I know, he was shouting and clapping his hands together to get the attention of the bear so that it would raise its head, making for a better picture for the photographers. The way I see it, these actions of shouting, clapping hands and whistling is HARASSMENT plain and simple. Then he walked along the line of people asking “how far do you think we are from the bear?” While at the same time reminding everyone that we should be standing 100 yards away from the wildlife. After a few guesses from the crowd he proudly announced that using his rangefinder binoculars he learned that we were only 42 yards away. He made absolutely no effort to move anyone back to the 100 yard mark. A short while later another ranger arrived in an official vehicule, the two discussed the situation and the newly arrived ranger parked and took out two orange traffic cones from this truck and announced to everyone that we were all too close to the bear and we immediately had to move back to 100 yards and to stand behind the orange cones.

For those of you who are familiar with the steep hillside of loose rock about 200 yards from the turn off to the Many Glacier Hotel, this is where the bear was busily devouring berries. The bear had no intention of leaping off this 30 foot high cliff to cross the road and then again leap off into obilivion. The reason for moving everyone was if the bear wanted to cross the road.

Can someone explain why a ranger would intentionally harass the wildlife and then encourage people to take pictures at 42 yards then another ranger strictly enforces this 100 yard rule while telling me the distance will allow the animal to cross the road if it wants? It would be good for both the animals and visitors if the rangers all referred to the same rule book and also were visible every day. I am very disappointed that this is the method of wildlife management in Glacier National Park.
Nikkor 200-400mm f/4.0