The ascent and inevitable struggles of 399 and her offspring are in many ways representative of all grizzlies in the modern American West. Theirs is a tale of one of the most successful wildlife recovery programs in the world – a resurrection that has taken the bear from the brink of extinction in the Lower 48 to a population of as many as 1,000 in the Greater Yellowstone region, which includes parts of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, as well as an equal number in ecosystems around Montana’s Glacier National Park and farther to the west.
As their numbers grow, grizzlies face daunting pressures – from poachers, big-game hunters killing them in self-defense, crowds of admiring tourists, dwindling food supplies, and humanity’s increasing development of the wilds.
Now comes a pivotal moment in the fortune of the iconic animal. The US Fish and Wildlife Service, official federal custodian of imperiled species, is poised to announce that grizzlies in Greater Yellowstone will be removed from protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Hiking in grizzly country, living in it, comes with the possibility that something bad could happen. But the likelihood of being mauled by a bear is incredibly low. For park visitors, the chances of being injured by a bear are approximately 1 in 2.1 million, the chances of being fatally mauled far less. As of late 2015, only eight people have been killed by bears in Yellowstone since the park was created in 1872.
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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