McCain Sees Pork Where Scientists See Success

Video

USGS Northern Divide Bear Project

This video footage was recorded between 2005 and 2007 at a bear rub tree in Glacier National Park. This clip shows a grizzly bear vigorously rubbing on a tree regularly used by other bears.

» LAUNCH VIDEO PLAYER

This was an astonishingly ambitious research project involving 207 paid workers, hundreds of volunteers, 7.8 million acres and 2,560 bear sampling sites. The project did not cost $3 million, as McCain's ad alleges, but more than $5 million, including nearly $4.8 million in congressional appropriations. It had a strong advocate in Congress in Montana's three-term senator, Conrad Burns, a Republican who was defeated in his reelection bid in 2006.

Burns is now chairman of McCain's campaign in Montana.

Grizzly bears in northwest Montana are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. But Kendall's project -- the results of which will be published soon in a scientific journal -- revealed that there are more grizzlies than anyone had realized. That suggests that three decades of conservation efforts, costing tens of millions of dollars, have paid off.

This could have long-term implications for the Northern Divide grizzlies, possibly including their removal someday from the threatened list. Delisting them would restore management of the bears to state control after decades of federal oversight.

"It was extremely well executed and well worth the money," said Sterling Miller, a bear researcher working for the National Wildlife Federation. "Someone like McCain should be delighted, in fact. The Endangered Species Act works."

Ex-Cheerleader vs. Mama Bear

Kate Kendall grew up in Falls Church and attended George Marshall High School. "Cheerleader Turns Bear Biologist," she said, writing her own headline.

She has spent 33 years with the federal government, mostly studying bears. She commutes to Glacier National Park every day from her home in Columbia Falls. It's a spectacular place to work, but, like so many scientists these days, she spends most of her hours staring into a computer screen. Still, she is ready at a moment's notice to slap on cross-country skis and go just about anywhere. She's dressed for the field: Gore-Tex jacket, trusty 25-year-old snow boots.

She's not afraid of bears but respects them. She knows what it's like to spend the night wide awake in a backwoods shelter with bear spray at the ready.

"When they're aggressive, they're on all fours, they've got their ears back, and they're charging you. I happen to know," she said.

She discovered that in Yellowstone National Park in 1981. She and a colleague surprised a female bear and her cub. Both animals were fleeing. Oh, neat, Kendall thought -- bears! But it turned out the mother was just stashing the cub in a safe spot. Mama bear returned and charged Kendall.

There was no tree to climb. Running would have been pointless.

"You can't outrun a grizzly bear. They can run 35 miles an hour."