The article covers some facts well. The bears are expanding range and interacting with humans more often.
I cannot recall specifics, but there are some valid arguments across multiple stakeholders and incentives for removing them from the endangered species list and allowing more hunting.
When I hike out here, I have bear spray and a 10mm. Grizzlies are dangerous animals, you can surprise them in odd areas and distances, and it’s fairly windy in many of the risk areas which impacts spray.
That said, the article felt a bit disingenuous in how it described the bears as a vicious mankiller.
Standard knowledge is 90% of the interactions are when you surprise a grizzly bear. The odds further lower that you’d surprise a bear leading to an interaction vs seeing the bear over a valley. If it happens, play dead on your stomach. They’ll swipe at you and walk away. *edit, should say the odds of getting to this are even more low, as they’ll usually huff/puff, and then “bluff charge”, and then worst case it could get to an attack to “end the threat” but not “eat you.” You can get hurt badly this way, but not a man-eater attack by no means. The other 10% are when they hunt after you, and then I yes I carry a 10mm and hike with a dog. But the odds of getting that far vs bear spray working are low too.
If the author is making a narrative around nature as to get people to read about mature, I can def respect that. But bears shouldn’t be feared beyond a healthy fear/respect border, especially if further interaction is likely.
This is a good resource to learn about bears from NOLS in Wyoming: