Interview: A Fierce Advocate For the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear

When he returned from Vietnam in 1968, Doug Peacock retreated to the Yellowstone backcountry to “get out of myself” and move beyond the memories that haunted him. It was there he began what would become his life’s work: documenting the grizzly bear on film and in books and advocating for its protection. Now Peacock is warning about what he sees as the greatest threat yet to the grizzly’s future: the loss of white-bark pine, a major food source for the bear. Warming temperatures have led to a proliferation of pine beetles, which are wiping out vast swaths of trees in the Rocky Mountains. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Peacock talks about why the demise of white-bark pine will lead to more contacts between grizzlies and people and why the grizzly needs to be protected under the Endangered Species Act. And he describes his most memorable brush with a bear. “I just felt,” he says, “that my life had been touched by magic.”

Read the interview