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Nonprofits host grizzly bear storytelling event

| July 23, 2025 1:00 AM

Three nonprofits are teaming up to honor the 50th anniversary of the grizzly bear being listed as an endangered species with stories about grizzly bears from the community. 

Whitefish Review, Yaak Valley Forest Council, and Vital Ground present “Your Grizzly Bear Story — A Night to Celebrate and Continue to Protect the Great Bear” on Monday, July 28, at 101 Central in downtown Whitefish. All ages are welcome, and no experience is necessary, just a desire to share a short tale and honor the continued protection of the grizzly bear and its habitat. 

“Share your best three-minute grizzly bear story, and we’ll link one story after another to weave together a narrative of human experience with the great bear,” said Brian Schott, founding editor of Whitefish Review. 

“This evening of stories will honor the grizzly bear being listed as an endangered species 50 years ago, but the bear has still not yet recovered,” says Rick Bass, author and executive director of the Yaak Valley Forest Council, whose organization works to defend the most endangered population of grizzlies in Montana and the West. “The loss of critical habitat becomes more severe each year, even in our beloved Montana, with climate change the deadliest of all stressors. Where would you go on a hot day if you were wearing a 70-pound fur coat?" 

“Because grizzlies roam very large home ranges that stretch from valley bottoms to mountaintops, a landscape that is intact and secure enough to support a healthy population of these great bears is also going to provide habitat and a future for a broad array of the other native creatures that belong there,” says Douglas H. Chadwick, author and Vital Ground founding board member, whose organization envisions a permanently connected landscape that ensures the long-term survival of grizzlies. “And — with luck and care — those parts of the world will always remain good enough, big enough, wild enough, and free enough ... for us.” 

Submit your story by emailing grizzly@whitefishreview.org with a brief synopsis of your tale. Spontaneous stories are also welcome, but pre-planning will help.  

Doors open at 7 p.m. for cocktail hour. The evening kicks off at 8 p.m. with 3-minute stories by Rick Bass, author of The Lost Grizzlies; Douglas H. Chadwick, author of Four Fifths a Grizzly; and Matt Holloway, fiction editor of the Whitefish Review — then it’s time for the community to tell their tales. 

A $10 donation at the door to help offset some of the event's costs is appreciated. The evening is sponsored by Whitefish Credit Union and 101 Central. For more information, email grizzly@whitefishreview.org.