Grizzly bear roaming through Usk

WILDLIFE — Here’s the latest news on a lowland grizzly in Pend Oreille County, from Andy Walgamott of Northwest Sportsman magazine :

Wildlife managers are keeping tabs on a grizzly that’s wandering in Pend Oreille County’s lowlands and so far isn’t causing any problems.

Observed in recent weeks near roads and farms, the large bear has been providing something of a Yellowstone-like viewing experience for locals, but if its behavior changes, WDFW spokeswoman Madonna Luers says that biologists will try to capture and move it to more remote parts of  Northeast Washington.

“We’re keeping an eye on it because it’s in a part of the county where there are more people,” she says.

Almost annually a grizzly makes its way through this country before eventually disappearing. This one apparently sniffed around a chicken coop on the Kalispel Tribe’s reservation along the Pend Oreille River, but an incident involving beehives was blamed on a black bear.

A picture of the grizzly made the front page of the Newport Miner last week; another online shows a bear just off the fogline of a paved road .

State, tribal and federal biologists have all been discussing the bear and its activities. An attempt to trap it earlier this month failed.

For more on bears, see WDFW’s webpage on the species .