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Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
‘There Was No Time to Be Nervous,' Says Montana Mushroom Hunter Who Shot Charging Grizzly
Justin Lee likes a good steak. And what completes a good steak, in Lee's opinion, is fresh-picked morels. On Wednesday, during his first foraging outting of the spring, Lee and his brother-in-law were looking for morel mushrooms on Lee's property north of Choteau, Montana. They were charged by a grizzly sow, and they shot and killed the bear at close range. 'There was no time to be nervous,' Lee tells Outdoor Life in an exclusive phone interview six days after he was charged. 'No time for calculation whatsoever.' Lee explains that he and his brother-in-law, John Long, had gone out walking on his property the evening of May 21. They drove his side-by-side down to Spring Creek, thinking it was a good spot to look for morels. Both men are from the area, and they know how to hike in grizzly country. They each carried sidearms: Lee had his 10mm Glock, and Long carried his 1911 chambered in .45 ACP. 'We weren't hunting bear,' says Lee, a 53-year-old retired attorney. 'We just carry these guns when we're down there in case. It just happened to be the 'in case' day that day.' After parking their rig in the cottonwoods near the creek, they started searching for mushrooms on foot. Lee walked toward the water. Long went about 50 yards ahead of him but returned quickly. 'He came running back saying, 'There's a bear. There's a bear.' Then I saw the bear and she had a cub. We started yelling and jumping up and down trying to scare her off. She just kept coming our way. Not charging but coming.' Lee says he suspects the sow was curious and trying to figure out what the ruckus was about. After closing the distance from 100 to 50 yards, the sow stood up on its hind legs, sniffing the air. Read Next: The Best Bear Defense Handguns of 2025 'She got our wind — she scented us,' Lee says. 'Then she got down on all fours and started jogging toward us instead of away from us. At 30 yards, she put her ears back and she was charging, so we started shooting.' It took eight bullets to put the sow down. Lee fired three rounds; Long shot five. They called a local game warden immediately to report the incident. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks investigated the shooting and ruled it a case of self-defense. Wildlife officials tried searching for the cub but couldn't find it. They also removed the grizzly carcass from Lee's property, which is marked with 'Be Bear Aware' signs. 'They were very good,' Lee says. 'I'm sorry to have to kill a bear, especially a female with a cub. But there wasn't a choice. I've seen many bears and [have] been close to many bears. In all my encounters, they see me and they run away. But [this bear] just wasn't afraid of humans.' A few hours later, Lee was at the local bar. It was poker night. He played a few hands, carried on, and went home. It wasn't until he climbed into bed that the events of the day caught up with him. 'I was lying in bed when it finally dawned on me what had happened. I was a little restless. I don't have any desire to kill a grizzly, but I wish I had [been able to keep] a grizzly claw. You just can't believe them until you see them.' Read Next: Proposal to Keep Grizzlies on the Endangered Species List Is 'Ludicrous,' Say Western Lawmakers Lee has a few cabins on his mostly undeveloped property near Choteau, which lies in Central Montana along the Rocky Mountain Front and southeast of Glacier National Park. The area falls within the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, which is home to more than 1,000 grizzly bears and has seen an uptick in the number of grizzly conflicts in recent years. In April, a shed hunter shot and killed a charging grizzly bear near Dupuyer, which lies roughly 30 miles north of Choteau. 'It doesn't change the way I behave, but it makes me wonder about having guests,' Lee says. 'The grizzly bear recovery program in North-Central Montana has been wildly successful. When I was a kid, they were rare and in the mountains. It was a really big deal to see them. Over the years, it's become less odd. Now it's just standard.'
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
Mushroom Hunters Shoot and Kill a Grizzly That Charged Them in Montana
Two men who were picking mushrooms a mile north of Choteau, Montana, were charged by a grizzly bear on Wednesday. Both men shot and killed the bear at close range, according to a press release from Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. The agency reports that the sow grizzly had one cub, which they are still trying to locate. The two men, identified only by their first names, were rattled but uninjured after their run-in with the bear. 'I spoke to John and Justin shortly after the incident and they were both still shook up,' MFWP director Christy Clark, said in the statement. 'They told me their story and it was clear it was very traumatic. What's important here is they're ok.' Choteau lies within the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, which hosts a recovered population of grizzly bears that's similar in size to the recovered population in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Together the two zones contain most of the estimated 2,200 federally-protected grizzlies in the Northern Rockies region. MFWP reported in April that another grizzly was shot and killed by an unidentified shed hunter near Dupuyer, Montana. Dupuyer lies roughly 30 miles north of Choteau, and the shed hunter incident involved similar circumstances. The 13-year-old sow had a yearling with her, which the agency said it would not capture as it should be able to survive on its own. Because grizzlies remain federally protected, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened an investigation into the shooting. Roughly a week after the Dupuyer incident, on April 21, two anglers were charged by a grizzly bear while fishing Red Rock Creek closer to West Yellowstone. One of the anglers shot at the bear in self-defense, according to MFWP, but no bear carcasses were found nearby and officials were unsure if the bear was injured. Read Next: Proposal to Keep Grizzlies on the Endangered Species List Is 'Ludicrous,' Say Western Lawmakers Another grizzly bear was shot earlier in May near Priest Lake in northern Idaho. Idaho Fish and Game said it was a case of mistaken identity. The bear hunter self-reported the error after killing the grizzly, which they had mistaken for a blackbear. The hunter has continued to cooperate with the investigation, according to officials, and could face jail time (potentially up to six months), along with fines and a possible license revocation for killing a federally-protected species. 'We will work closely with the prosecutor's office to request that the penalties reflect the hunter's honesty and cooperation,' IDFG spokesperson TJ Ross told the Coeur d'Alene Press earlier this month.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fines for aquatic invasive species violations increase under new law
Anyone transporting watercraft must stop at all open watercraft inspection stations they encounter in Montana. (FWP photo) When Tom Millett, a Republican state lawmaker from Marion, was working at a nuclear powerplant on Lake Michigan nearly 30 years ago, he routinely found himself face to face with zebra mussels. The small freshwater mollusks are not native to North America, but were introduced into many waterways east of the Mississippi River in the 1980s, including the Great Lakes and have spread prolifically, earning a moniker as one of the most dangerous invasive species on the continent. For Millett, zebra mussels would routinely coat parts of the power plant that connected to the freshwater lake. 'We had to go in there and we had to actually physically remove the zebra mussels all the time,' Millett said. 'And I can just tell you stories about zebra mussels, that we would take them out in big, huge dumpsters. By the dumpster load. That's how prolific these things are.' In an 2024 environmental review for the Palisades Nuclear Plant on Lake Michigan, it was reported that zebra mussels still coated parts of the intake system, an inch-and-a-half thick. To prevent a similar problematic infestation of Montana waterways, Millett carried House Bill 242 during the 2025 Legislative session, increasing the fines for anyone who knowingly or negligently introduces any aquatic invasive species into Montana or fails to stop at a watercraft check station. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill on May 5. Aquatic invasive species include plants, animals and pathogens that are not native to the state, and can harm the ecosystem and economy. Mussels are one of the common poster species for AIS prevention. Montana doesn't yet have a major problem with Zebra mussels, or the similarly invasive quagga mussel, but neighboring states do, and there have been several suspicious detections of mussels and their larvae in Montana waterways, including Canyon Ferry Reservoir and the Missouri River. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks runs a program to counteract aquatic invasive species, which includes a public information campaign and numerous AIS check stations that all boaters in Montana, including non-motorized ones such as canoes and stand-up paddleboards, are required to stop at for inspection. Out-of-state boaters must also obtain an inspection before launching on Montana waters. In 2024, FWP officials reported intercepting more than 47 mussel-fouled boats, and 800 transporting aquatic weeds. According to the state's AIS inspection dashboard, FWP reports that watercraft check stations have already intercepted 10 mussel-fouled boats in 2025. The new law essentially doubles the fine for a first negligent offense as well as subsequent offenses for introducing AIS or failing to stop at an inspection station— from $500 to $700 for a first offense and from $750 to $1400 for subsequent offenses. In addition, knowingly attempting to introduce an invasive species to Montana, a felony, now has a fine of as much as $25,000. 'Is that tough? It's absolutely tough, because we can't risk having AIS being introduced into Montana to hurt our fishing industry, our tourism industry, our hydro facilities, our water treatment plants or any of our industries that employ thousands of Montanans,' Millett said during a hearing on his bill in February. 'We need to send a message to everyone who wants to come to Montana that we are serious about keeping our waters clean now and for future generations.' Millett's bill was supported during legislative hearings by researchers with the Flathead Lake Biological Station, the Montana Association of Conservation Districts, Montana Audubon, The Fishing Outfitters Association of Montana, Trout Unlimited, and the Little Bitterroot Lake Association. The threat of AIS, specifically zebra and quagga mussels, comes with a drastic price tag. A 2019 study published by the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station estimated that if mussels colonized all of Montana's water bodies, it could cost the state between $384.5 million to $731.4 million in mitigation costs, lost revenue and property value losses. Prevention efforts, by comparison, are cheap. Montana spent more than $3.6 million running its inspection and decontamination stations in 2018, and operates a grant program that disseminates more than a half million dollars for invasive species-related prevention. In 2024, the Fish, Wildlife and Parks and partners conducted more than 130,000 watercraft inspections across the state, resulting in 47 citations and 91 written warnings. Under the law signed last week, the increased fines leveraged against violators would be funneled into the state's general fund. FWP officials remind all Montanans that boaters and anglers must remember to clean, drain and dry their watercraft before leaving a water access site and are required to stop at all open watercraft inspection stations. Nonresidents and residents returning home must have their watercraft inspected before launching in Montana. Watercraft must also be drained of all water before transporting. For more information, visit or
