Gaining Ground for Bears’ Habitat

Appropriately enough, the most comfortable creature at Vital Ground’s first fund-raiser for protecting grizzly habitat was the bear.

Bart, a 1,600-pound kodiak bear/movie star, didn’t seem to mind how cold it was Sunday afternoon on a Mandeville Canyon hilltop. Or how the weather started off with a light mist, worked its way up to an enthusiastic drizzle, then finished with a convincing downpour.

In fact the bear seemed to enjoy performing for the 350-strong crowd huddled under umbrellas, grouped together for warmth under tents and delicately tiptoeing through the mud.

The idea behind Vital Ground is to buy land, or gain easements, so grizzlies will be protected when they migrate from national parkland for spring feeding. The land between the bears’ homes and their foraging areas is being developed in ways that endanger the animals.

Film producer Arne Schmidt organized the event (which raised $50,000 despite the rain) to assist Bart’s trainer, Doug Seus, in his efforts to safeguard land vital for the bears’ survival.

“The park boundaries don’t fully encompass the needs of the animals that live in them,” said Schmidt. “They don’t match up with what the bears need for a complete ecosystem.”

The idea was the fund-raiser would be a family affair with a petting zoo, pony rides and performances.

However, it was already quite cool and the skies threatening when emcee Chevy Chase introduced two Crow Indian elders, Robert Kelly and Cartie Goes Ahead, who blessed the event. “We share the same cause as the grizzly,” Kelly said.

It began to drizzle while a 12-member troupe of Navajo dancers, the Beautyway Moccasin Dancers, performed and it was definitely raining when Seus brought out Bart to show some of the tricks he’s done in films including “The Bear,” “White Fang,” and “The Clan of the Cave Bear.”

The sight of one awesome 10-foot-tall bear is what most of the guests were awaiting. Nobody walked out on Bart, but after Jeff Bridges introduced Jim Messina and his band, they played for undoubtedly the smallest, wettest crowd of their careers.