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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Bill could impact Lynn Rogers, Shute sanctuary

Marshall Helmberger and Tom Klein
Posted 3/19/15

ELY— Is the Department of Natural Resources using legislation to punish Ely bear researcher Lynn Rogers, by preventing him from continuing his popular bear study courses? That’s Rogers’ …

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Bill could impact Lynn Rogers, Shute sanctuary

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ELY— Is the Department of Natural Resources using legislation to punish Ely bear researcher Lynn Rogers, by preventing him from continuing his popular bear study courses? That’s Rogers’ contention after the state agency offered a provision last week that would prohibit the feeding of bears in Minnesota.

The measure, now part of a natural resources policy bill in St. Paul, would prohibit anyone from leaving food out for bears, or failing to take action when notified that bears are utilizing a food source provided by a landowner, whether or not it was intentionally left out for bears. The bill also specifically prohibits anyone from hand-feeding bears, which Rogers has done regularly as part of his popular bear study courses, which have helped fund his Wildlife Research Institute in Eagles Nest Township.

The measure would exempt bird feeders as well as bear bait left out by hunters.

Rogers recently told the Associated Press that his research institute has spent at least $420,000 in a legal fight to restore his research permit, which the DNR Commissioner revoked last year. Rogers is currently appealing a decision by the Office of Administrative Hearings, that upheld the DNR’s permit revocation, to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

For Rogers, the bear study courses have proven to be his primary means of financing his legal defense as well as the ongoing work of his institute. Rogers typically charges $2,400 for participants who spend several days at the institute, observing wild black bears at close range. Rogers can all but guarantee regular bear sightings because he continues to feed bears on the institute grounds.

Rogers said he had projected income of $120,000 from the courses over the next year.

If passed, the legislation would effectively shut down Rogers’ operation and eliminate his primary source of funding for the institute. “If we can’t feed, we can’t hold courses and recover some of the funds that we’ve expended on our legal case.” Currently, Rogers and his fellow researcher, Susan Mansfield, draw salaries of $30,000 annually from the research facility. While the institute once had a financial reserve of over $500,000, most of that has been depleted by the ongoing legal battle with the DNR.

Whether or not the legislation is targeted at Rogers, its fallout could include operations at the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary, near Orr, where a longstanding bear feeding operation attracts hundreds of wild bears and thousands of human visitors each year. Dennis Udovich, who was recently re-elected as president of the American Bear Association, said he’s aware of the bill but needs to study the proposed legislation to see what impact it could have on the sanctuary. The legislation, as currently written, does allow for bear feeding, by permit, for scientific purposes or to control wildlife disease or damage.

But Udovich said from what he’s seen and heard so far, the legislation seems to be targeted primarily at Lynn Rogers.

Although bears are fed at the sanctuary, Udovich said bears are not dependent on the sanctuary as their sole source for food.

“But during years when berry crops are poor and food is scarce for bears, we see more bears coming in to supplement their feeding,” said Udovich. “I think it helps reduce nuisance bear complaints.”

Udovich said the sanctuary has modified its operations since the American Bear Association took control of the property in 1995.

“We’ve quit hand feeding and we don’t allow visitors to feed the bears candy, fruit or other food items or bring them to the sanctuary.” In addition, Udovich said the association discourages people from feeding bears at home.

“We only do it here because it was started by Vince more than 20 years ago,” he said, referring to the sanctuary’s namesake. Shute operated a logging camp at the site. Bears attracted by the scent of Shute’s sourdough pancakes would invade the camp. Shute initially shot the bears breaking into his logging camp buildings, but later decided to leave out some pancakes for the bears instead.

His act of kindness resulted in a unique kinship with the bears that soon had visitors flocking to the site.

“It would be hard to stop feeding the bears here now,” said Udovich, who added the sanctuary provides a rare opportunity to observe black bear behavior with animals normally skittish around humans.

Volunteers working at the sanctuary are the only people allowed to feed the bears, Udovich said. The food supplied is more nutritious and closer to the bears’ diet of natural foods than was the case in the past.

Udovich, who also serves as president of the Bear Guides Association, noted that the feeding restriction won’t apply to bear hunters, who bait bears by setting out food to attract the animals to a site.