When word got out on the evening of June 17th that a grizzly near Yellowstone Park had killed 70 year-old botanist Erwin Evert shortly after the bear was tranquilized and released by Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team biologists, the obvious question was, "were there warning signs posted at the trap site?"
Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team biologists Chad Dickinson and Seth Thompson knew the answer to that question because they took down the signs and left the bear behind at 12:30 PM. The grizzly was awake, but not yet ambulatory. It couldn't stand or walk. It killed Evert at 2 PM. Evert was just 21 yards away from the exact spot where Dickinson and Thompson had processed the bear an hour and a half earlier.
For a month after Evert's death, Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team leader Chuck Schwartz, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator Chris Servheen, Shoshone National Forest officials, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department either stonewalled the media, or gave the media inaccurate, misleading information in order to convince the public that warning signs were in place when Evert was killed.
Dickinson found Evert's body around 6:30 PM. Representatives from different agencies quickly arrived at the Kitty Creek trailhead, and Evert's summer cabin right by the trailhead. Park County Sheriff's Deputy Russ Pennell and Wyoming Game and Fish Department bear specialist Mark Bruscino accompanied Dickinson back to Evert's body. These men all knew there were no warning signs posted at the trap site.
Evert's cabin was a busy place that evening. At 6:45 PM, Wyoming Game and Fish Department employee Gary Brown arrived. Oddly, his written report does not mention speaking to Seth Thompson to find out what happened. Instead, Brown interviewed Chuck Neal, a friend of the Evert family who had been notified and just driven 45 miles from Cody. Neal arrived at the cabin about the same time Brown did. Neal had no idea where Evert died or what the circumstances were.
Shoshone National Forest district ranger Terry Root interviewed Evert's wife Yolanda, and Chuck Neal. There's no written record showing that Root interviewed Chad Dickinson or Seth Thompson.
The IGBST office in Bozeman was notified about the fatality. At 8:30 PM, Mark Haroldson at the IGBST office in Bozeman called IGBST leader Chuck Schwartz at his residence and "informed him of the situation as I knew it."
Did Haroldson know the warning signs were removed from trap site #3 before Evert was killed? Did Haroldson tell Schwartz?
On June 18 at 2:15 AM, Chad Dickinson called Mark Haroldson again and informed him that he had left the Evert 's cabin and the Kitty Creek trailhead and was at the Wapiti Ranger Station. He said he'd be traveling with Seth Thompson to the IGBST's office in Bozeman the next morning.
On June 18 at 6:45 AM, Haroldson reported that he called Chris Servheen. Since grizzlies are a threatened species protected by the Endangered Species Act, trapping them for research purposes requires a permit issued by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service--and signed by Chris Servheen. Servheen is in charge of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, and a recent press release from the Committee says the IGBST is the "scientific study and monitoring component of Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee."
Chris Servheen is the grizzly czar. The IGBST and Servheen's grizzly committee work closely together; Servheen and Chuck Schwartz work hand in hand.
Did Haroldson tell grizzly czar Chris Servheen that Dickinson and Thompson took down warning signs at trap site #3 before Evert was killed?
On June 18 at 7:15 AM Chuck Schwartz and Mark Bruscino talked. Did Bruscino tell Schwartz that Dickinson and Thompson took down warning signs at trap site #3 before Evert was killed?
When did Chuck Schwartz and Chris Servheen learn that Dickinson and Thompson had removed the warning signs at trap site #3 before Evert was killed?
On June 18 at 11 AM, Dennie Hammer, the public information officer for the Cody office of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, emailed a fact sheet about the attack to Eric Keszler, chief spokesman for the agency. Hammer informed Keszler the IGBST's "protocol is to post signs during the trapping effort. They took the signs down after processing the bear yesterday."
Months later Billings Gazette reporter Ruffin Prevost used public records laws to pry this information out of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Prevost asked Keszler ""why he or other Wyoming wildlife officials didn't share the information they did know on June 18 about removal of the signs."
Keszler replied, "You're going to have to ask Chuck Schwartz that. That's his information."
It is? Schwartz signed a written agreement on January 28, 2010 with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for a grizzly trapping permit that says, "All trap sites shall be signed to alert the public if they inadvertently approach a baited trap site."
In March, Servheen sent Schwartz a memo stating that news releases "will be the responsibility of the state fish and game agency in close consultation with the administering land management agency and the grizzly bear recovery coordinator.
Regardless of what Chuck Schwartz chose to do, Keszler knew trap site #3 was not signed when Evert got killed. Keszler's job was to tell Wyoming residents the IGBST had not lived up to the terms of its agreement with the Wyoming Game & Fish Department.
Ironically, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed legislation in March symbolically adopting the "Code of the West" for Wyoming--"Cowboy ethics." Wyoming's code of the West tells residents and lawmakers to "take pride in their work," "do what's necessary," "be tough but fair", and "know where to draw the line."
Wyoming Game and Fish Department chief spokesman Eric Keszler took pride in covering up the essential facts. Instead of doing what was necessary, he drew the line at telling the truth. Instead of being tough but fair he was a spineless and his participation in a conspiracy of silence was grossly unfair to Erwin Evert's grieving wife and daughter, not to mention the residents of Wyoming.
There was no news release about the fatal bear attack from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator Chris Servheen, or the Shoshone National Forest. They stonewalled the media.
Months later, an unnamed "official at a federal agency in Wyoming who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media" told Billings Gazette reporter Ruffin Prevost "regional supervisors for one federal agency told workers to make no public statements about the incident. They were also told not to use e-mail or other written communications to discuss the incident, because those would be subject to public records requests."
Top government officials stonewalled the media in a cover-up that would make Richard Nixon proud.
June 18. Deputy Sheriff Mike Pennell wrote a case incident report that was approved on June 19. Of course the media is not allowed to see it due to the ongoing investigation of Evert's death. When the investigation is made public a month later, Pennell's report describes trap site #3 and says, "I observed that this location is not marked in any way, as to warn hikers of the bear activity occurring at this location."
On June 18 at 1 PM, Mark Haroldson and Chris Servheen talked on the phone again. Did grizzly czar Chris Servheen know the warning signs were taken down at trap site #3 before Evert was killed?
On June 18 at 2:40 PM, Chad Dickinson and Seth Thompson arrive at the IGBST office in Bozeman and meet with Haroldson and Chuck Schwartz. Chuck Schwartz's written records say, "2:45 PM. Chad and Seth arrived and we discussed the incident with them." After processing the grizzly at trap site #3, "They cleared the area and removed the signs on their way out."
June 18. In "Grizzly kills man near Wyoming's Yellowstone park," Chuck Schwartz told Associated Press writer Mead Gruver, "there would be an investigation, including into whether required procedures were followed, such as posting warning signs about the grizzly research. My heart goes out for the victim and the family involved in this."
June 19. The bear that killed Evert was executed per Chris Servheen. According to a Billings Gazette article titled "DNA tests match dead bear to mauling," "Evert ignored warning signs posted advising hikers to avoid the area because of the likelihood of a dangerous bear encounter."
Chris Servheen said, "We try to do everything we can to minimize the risks. But we can't protect ourselves again people that ignore ever warning we give."
June 19th. Seth Thompson provided the IGBST with a written statement. He wrote that on June 17th while the grizzly at trap site #3 was tranquilized, "Chad went around and pulled the signs from this site . . . We left the bear and trap site #3 at about 12:30 PM."
June 20. Chad Dickinson provided the IGBST with a written statement. He wrote that on June 17 it was decided trap site #3 would be "pulled and shut down. This meant all snares pulled and trapping closure signs would be removed . . . At 12:30 PM I decided we needed to leave the male grizzly since we had another snare still that needed to be checked."
Dickinson and Thompson left the grizzly at trap site #3, and rode a mile or so up the Kitty Creek trail to trap site #2.
June 21. In "Feds kill grizzly bear that killed botanist," Chris Servheen told the Cody Enterprise, "There were signs posted and the victim had seen the signs."
June 22. In "Grizzly bear shot after killing hiker," the Powell Tribune reported, "Despite posted signs warning that grizzly bear trapping operations were ongoing and tell the public not to enter, Erwin Evert hiked into the area late Thursday morning."
"And he saw those signs," Servheen said.
On June 23, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reported, "Officials and researchers with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have kept mum on many details surrounding the incident, pending an investigation."
But Chuck Schwartz was willing to "describe a protocol for closures during bear captures" for the Jackson Hole News & Guide. He said, "We completely encircle the area with signs. The radius of the closure depends on a number of factors, including terrain. The closure are typically far from roads and trails. [But just 3700 feet from the cabins at Kitty Creek]. Typically, the signs will remain in place until the operation is complete. An investigation into the incident will determine whether researchers followed those procedures."
On June 24, the Chicago Sun-Times did an article titled "Widow of man killed by bear 'furious' at researchers." But "Chuck Schwartz, leader of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, said this week that he couldn't talk about the bear attack involving Evert because it's under investigation. But he said it's standard procedure for his team to post signs letting the public know that a bear trapping operation is under way and that the area is closed to the public."
On June 27 in a Missoulian article titled, "Wildlife research protocols under scrutiny," Schwartz again said "a full investigation was under way into the death of Erwin Evert, but specific details were not available yet."
Chris Servheen said Evert may have "seen signs alerting him to the trapping activity before he entered the area."
On September 15, the Billings Gazette did an article titled "Politics complicated news of Wyoming bear attacks." Chris Servheen claimed Chuck Schwartz "did not immediately tell him about the removal of the signs. I wasn't aware of it until the crew was interviewed when they got back to Bozeman several days after the incident."
Long after Servheen and Schwartz knew the warning signs at trap site #3 had been removed before Evert was killed, they kept misleading the media and the public about the situation. Servheen and Schwartz are the gatekeepers for a wealth of critically important information on grizzly bears. At the moment, a federal judge is reviewing materials provided by Servheen and Schwartz and using that information to decide whether or not grizzly bears should be removed from the Endangered Species list.
Can Servheen and Schwartz be trusted, or are they the Richard Nixon and H.R. Hadleman of grizzly bear politics? Should the Department of Interior remove Servheen and Schwartz and appoint honest replacements the public can rely on for accurate information about grizzly bears?
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