June Mike Johnson and Lorie Kennedy continued to show their worth today as they connected with June and then Faith to swap out GPS units.
Jim Stroner had changed June’s unit yesterday, but it hadn’t sent a reading by this morning so we sent Mike and Lorie to replace it. They found her in a network of logging roads and easily made the swap. After giving only 7 readings, this unit seems to have stopped as well, which may mean another trip out to June tomorrow.
FaithFaith was in her developing territory but in an area reachable by a narrow forest road. In true “you can’t get there from here” fashion, Mike and Lorie had to drive 20 miles to get to that forest road. Faith stepped out onto the road in the distance when they stopped to radio-locate her. She bolted into the woods and it took them half an hour of radio-tracking and patience to convince her it was okay to approach. Once she knew the situation, she was fine. Faith is back on the map, and we’re relieved they were successful in her hard-to-reach area. Part of their job this summer will be to locate and map the best ways—roads or trails—into the various parts of her territory.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.