
Bad news bears: Field of screams for children in the corn
A new season of picking sweet corn is again upon Gallagher’s Natural Beef and Produce, which has been a 16-year family affair for Bridget Gallagher and her husband, Cecil. However, in recent years new, unwelcome families have been making themselves comfortable in the Gallagher’s 20-acres of sweet corn in Clark, WY.
“The Grizzly bears started showing up about five years ago,” said Bridget Gallagher, who has been ranching and farming with Cecil for almost 20 years.
Grizzlies are running out of space to roam free, so they are getting transferred into the area. The bears seem pretty happy about it. The Gallaghers… not so much.
“Our ranch is right along the river, so the bears have a water supply and their food supply,” she said. “They love corn, so they’re just loving it. They don’t have to go to the lures because they could care less.”
Last year, Gallagher estimated that at one time or another there were about five bears roaming throughout the 8-foot-high corn stalks.
“Fish and game did trap two cubs, mama got away, so that’s another issue,” Gallagher said. “So now she knows that this is here so she can bring future cubs down and it’s a good feeding ground.”
The Gallagher’s corn is not only 8 feet high, but also very thick, which increases the risk of coming face-to-face with a bear. “When we were raising corn back East you could see for miles, but here it is different because it is so thick,” said Gallagher.
Gallagher’s concern is as high as the corn stalks, especially when six of her own children are working the fields. The bears are apt to make beds in the field, which the Gallaghers have come across. When that happened “fish and game came in — that’s the hard part — they tell us to leave, not be in there, but this is our livelihood, and its a produce product where you can’t just leave, because if you leave it for a day it could be overripe and you’ve missed out,” said Gallagher.
Efforts are in place to keep the bears out, but the possibility of an encounter is real.
“People ask, ‘do you take in bear spray?’ Well, like I said, its so thick in there that by the time you come upon one or it comes to you, you are not going to have time… you can’t even see 15 feet in front of you,” said Gallagher. “You are just not going to have time.
“We just want people to realize these are not just fuzzy little cute things that we are talking about — and the government thinks, ‘oh that’s fine,’” Gallagher continued. “They really need to seriously do something about it because they are becoming an issue and people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake.”