In Memory
Chico, Biscuit and Rosie in the good old days.
Brandy, Lemon and Lime.
(Click on any Image to see a higher resolution version)
I am trying to remember what to do with an Alberta summer. It is hot
here, but it was also hotter in Kamchatka than it had been in 58 years.
The support we have received from hundreds of people including the faithful
readers of this web page has been overwhelming. Also, I am floored by
the time and effort Paula, our Web Master, has put into answering all
your letters of outrage and disappointment. We have read all of them too
and very much appreciate your concerns for the bears and for Maureen and
I.
About what actually happened, I can only say that it is not simply a case
of poaching. Ironically, the reason our bears are dead is because our
ranger program became a threat to someone who knew if he killed our bears
we would probably go home. It is very frustrating for me not to be able
to do something about this, but our realization about the cause points
out that there is a limit to what foreigners can and should do to solve
perceived problems in a country as complicated as Russia. On the other
hand, it is a temptation to try to continue with the ranger program because
it is definitely working better than any other in the whole peninsula.
Maureen and I will pursue different avenues towards the same objective
now that we are working back in North America. My efforts are going to
be towards looking at how people can utilize better information about
the true nature of bears. I have spent so much time with bears that I
feel out of touch with the realities of working with humans. One thing
that I definitely can't get my head around is what seems to be happening
in our National Parks. So many people are lured into them for reasons
that have everything to do with commercialism and very little to do with
learning about how to be a positive part of nature that it all seems hopeless
to me. I often wonder how things would be today, if for the last hundred
years we had been told by naturalists and others in the know, how we were
a part of nature and shown how to fit in better, rather than made to feel
extraterrestrial while we are in contact with the wild.
Beginning as soon as our new photography book Grizzly Seasons is
properly launched and I feel sane again, I want to travel around the continent
looking for examples where people are living successfully with bears and
with wildlife. I want to talk to the people who I know about and find
others who I have never heard of, and pick their brains. Eventually, if
there is no such place, I want to look for a community somewhere in North
America where there are lots of wildlife, including bears. A place where
the populace wants to learn to live in harmony rather than always be at
odds with, or in competition with, most other living things. [We accomplished
this on a small scale at the salmon research station at Kurilskoy Lake
in Russia. That experiment is probably the best example in the world for
the way about 25 people now live so nicely with a large number of brown
bears]. The community would ideally be remote enough that it would not
be jeopardized by the surrounding areas with a different mind set.
With our modern tendencies toward litigation, perhaps this idea is impractical
unless it was done in a native community somewhere. With huge respect
to natives, I would rather not go this route because the experiment would
be discredited by those who would say; "Of course natives can do
that, but there is no chance that the rest of humanity could." I
don't have enough years ahead of me to complete that step then find I
have to do the final one with the ordinary, run of the mill North American
in order to prove my point and begin a new trend. For now this is all
I can tell you except that we plan to keep this web site operational as
long as we can find funding to continue the second phase of our living
with bears experiments.
Thanks again for your letters. It has been incredible to understand how
wonderful and supportive you all are.
- Charlie