Dear Friend of the Grizzly,

Sharing this news is the hardest thing I have ever done:
On Feb. 2, Dr. David John Mattson, my husband and Co-founder of this Grizzly Times website, passed away at home here in Montana after a long illness.

David was my beloved, best friend, and north star.

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I know I am not alone in sharing a sense of grief and profound loss.

Our lives have been intertwined since 1986 when David was a researcher with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, and I was a clueless environmental advocate seeking to learn more about grizzlies.

Over the years, we learned that with different approaches—David, a world-class scientist, and me an environmental activist—we made a great team working to make the world a better place for grizzlies and their imperiled wild habitat.

When words do not fail me as they do now, I will share more about David’s passion, heart and ferocious intellect—and some funny stories—that inspired me and countless others. Grizzlies would thank David too if they could speak!

I hope you will consider sharing your reflections about him, as well. Feel free to email them to us at info@grizzlytimes.org.

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Forty years ago, few could imagine that grizzlies would have to do the heavy lifting for protecting wildlands and wildlife in the Northern Rockies. Among others, David and I hoped that this would not be necessary, and that common sense and the converging science on the needs of elk, trout and ecosystems would prompt managers to exercise more restraint and Congress to act.

Since this did not happen, the burden has fallen heavily on the backs of bears and their advocates. For decades, David helped lawyers make sense of complex science, and the often tortuous and wrong-headed arguments of government officials, to craft winning cases that saved hundreds of thousands of acres of habitat.

He would be pleased to know that a few weeks after he passed, the imperiled Cabinet Yaak ecosystem was spared the disastrous impacts of a massive roading and logging project by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling focused on the grizzly bear, and relied significantly on David’s insights and evidence.
Much more needs to be done to allow bears to flourish in a rapidly changing world. Although David did not live to see the final product, he advised the advocates who assembled this report: “A New Vision for Grizzly Bear Recovery in the Northern Rockies.”

As readers of our website which features his scientific research, you know how grizzlies are threatened by climate change, habitat destruction, excessive killing, and anti-carnivore policies. Making matters worse, now both the administration and Congress are pushing to kill more bears, strip protection for grizzlies in Yellowstone and other ecosystems and shrink populations to dangerously low levels.

Now, more than ever, we must stand together to defend grizzlies wild places, and civil society.
To be better informed about current scientific and related management problems that will play out in the upcoming months and years, please read David’s comprehensive report, Flawed Science:
Report - Flawed Science by Dr. David Mattson

His obituary and additional information follow below...

For the bears,
Louisa