Cutbank Adventures

There are three areas where we monitor bear activity. One at the Brooks River falls platform, one at the lower river platform and on the cutbank. The cutbank is an area where the shore line is washing away from normal river erosion. Near the bank is a clump of four trees and in these four trees about 12 feet up we have a little platform set up to monitor the river, the fishermen, and the bears. The platform is just big enough for two people to sit. The main tree that the platform is connected to is starting to lean over the river. We have been afraid that it will fall while we are on it. We are working on building a new one in a different set of trees but nothing gets done fast when you work for the government. So we have tied ropes to our falling tree to trees deeper in the woods in hopes that if it should give way they will either stop the fall or give us time to get out of the tree before we end up in the cold water.

Even though the platform is not the safest place to be, it is the coolest place to watch bears. We can see a very large section of river and we aren't surrounded by visitors so you can monitor the bear behavior without interruptions. Every third day the monitoring is done here. My first night back at Brooks and we are on the platform starting our survey. Our first bear to show up is Beadnose. She is a very cute female, a great fisherbear, and when she looks at you, you just want to hug her and place a ribbon in her hair, she is that cute. She stops and looks up at us then proceeds under the platform where she lies down. It reminded me of a big dog lying in wait for her owners to get up. She stayed with us for at least a half an hour. Every so often we would glance down and look at her.

We saw other bears in various parts of the river fishing. Then we saw a courting couple. They were on our side of the river walking the shore line. The female, 198, was in the lead followed by the male, 856, who is a pretty big male. They headed right for us. Neither of us working knew what the two bears would do if they saw us so we became very quiet. 198 came close to the trees then noticed Beadnose. 198 moved into the woods and circled away from the platform. Beadnose caught the scent of the male bear and ran off along the shoreline. Then 856 showed up. He lumbered underneath our platform sniffing for his female. With every step he took the ground shook and the platform wiggled. I hung on to the branches tighter. He followed the scent of Beadnose, and headed away following the shoreline. My partner and I looked at each other and whispered how we hoped he wouldn't see us because if he should stand up on his hind legs we would be in trouble. He is that big of bear.

856 realizing he was following the wrong female retraced his steps. He was not a happy bear. We sat very still, hardly breathing, trying not to make a sound as the big male sniffed and huffed and tried to figure out where is girl had gone. Again he moved under the platform. The trees rocked and the ground shook and I looked up trying to figure out if I could climb higher into the tree. Then 856 found 198's scent and headed off in the woods to find her. With a sigh of relief we went back to work.