Should We Welcome Prairie Bears’ Return?

Reports of grizzly bears spreading into areas where they haven’t been spotted in decades seem to have come one after another this summer. A video of bears running through a neighborhood in Ulm, north of Great Falls, circulated widely in June. Confirmed sightings in the Pryor Mountains south of Billings, the Shields River Valley north of Livingston and the greater Helena area followed in July.

News recently that a grizzly crossed a vast swath of private land to reach the Missouri River Breaks was not entirely unexpected. It’s believed to be the ...