Hovland Conservation Officer Mary Manning's gun toting bear encounter gets the media's attention
Jul 14, 2021 06:55AM ● By EditorThere's a time-honored saying that maintains there's a first time for everything, and a recent incident that unfolded in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) suggests it might be true.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reports that conservation officer Mary Manning recently took a report of an armed bear on the loose in the BWCA. A camper told Manning that the bear stole his backpack, with a handgun and several delicious-smelling snacks inside, from a portage landing and ran off into the woods.
Officer Manning and a colleague from the U.S. Forest Service responded to the portage and after searching the area, were able to locate the shredded pack, a bunch of empty snack wrappers and the missing handgun.
The bear remains on the loose.
In a weekly report, the Minnesota DNR called the armed bear incident a first for both their agency and the U.S. Forest Service.
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