This Grizzly The Real Thing

Many question the validity of the local grizzly bear recovery habitat, but to Clark Fork resident Jim Cheslic, the presence of ursus horribilis is a fact.

Last June, Cheslic was running his portable sawmill on a mountain near Clark Fork. It was lunchtime. Cheslic turned off his saw and stopped for coffee and a sandwich.

When he started up the mill again, to warm it up before getting back to work, he glanced over at the slash pile. He saw a grizzly.

“I wasn’t sure right away,” said Cheslic, “but when he stood up, I knew.” He could tell because of the huge paws and a face the size of a washtub.

“Most people mistake a black bear from a grizzly bear by the color,” said Cheslic, “but you know right away if you’ve seen one before.”

“Anyone who’s not scared out of their skin can identify a grizzly bear from a black bear,” Cheslic continued. “People are plain and simple afraid of bears.”

What Cheslic saw that day was a 200-pound young grizzly with huge paws and hair that was a lot longer than that of a black bear. The grizzly stood on his hind legs, not 30 feet away.

“He was just checking me out,” said Cheslic. “Just being inquisitive.”

Cheslic gave a little extra gas to the sawmill. The bear snorted, swung his head, and took off up the mountain.

Cheslic saw his first two grizzlies after he moved to North Idaho from Illinois in 1990, and has a photograph as proof. His son Mark took it to school for a discussion on local bears.

Another time Cheslic trailed a grizzly between two of the more prominent peaks in the area, until the animal dropped into a canyon and disappeared. He saw another grizzly when he drove up a back road to visit a friend.

Lifelong Clark Fork resident Joe Brashear once saw four grizzlies together - a sow and a newborn cub, and two older cubs that had not yet been run off by the mother.

“Oh, they’re a beautiful animal,” Brashear exclaimed many years later.

In the decade he spent prospecting up and down the Clark Fork hills and mountains, Brashear used to see tracks all over. “They stay back and up high and you can tell their tracks by the long nails,” he said.

This month, when Cheslic was scouting the forest for potential firewood, he saw a 400-pound almost-mature grizzly and he wondered if it was the same grizzly he had seen last June. “It seemed like the bear was saying: `OK, I’m out of here. It’s you again,”’ said Cheslic.

The bear was not perturbed by the barking of Cheslic’s two 8-month-old pups. Cheslic, unarmed and carrying only a chain saw - and accompanied by his dachshund Sparky - tracked the grizzly about a mile over the mountain before he could catch his pups and bring them home.

“If anyone gets wind of where a bear might be, they’ll be shutting this place down,” said Cheslic, who asked that the exact locations of where he saw the grizzlies not be named. Meanwhile he warned his friends and family, and tied up his pups, so they wouldn’t stray again.

“I used to read Field and Stream like the Bible,” said Cheslic with a huge grin. “I never figured I’d ever see a grizzly bear.”