#104 | Walking With Grizzlies: The Real Story Behind America's Most Controversial Conservation Debate | Jason Matzinger

The grizzly bear recovery is one of the greatest conservation success stories in American history — so why won't anyone celebrate it? Ike sits down with filmmaker and Sportsman Channel host Jason Matzinger to talk about his upcoming documentary Walking With Grizzlies, a film that sets out to tell the full, honest story of where grizzly bears actually stand today. Jason traces the idea back to a 2017 event in Bozeman where he watched bear biologists — people who had dedicated their careers to recovering the grizzly — sit in a room looking defeated, their life's work accomplished but unacknowledged. From there, the conversation covers what the science actually says about grizzly populations (hint: the recovery zones don't tell the whole story), why keeping them on the Endangered Species List may be the worst thing for the bears themselves, the 71 bears already killed this year in Wyoming alone, and why politicizing the process is demoralizing an entire generation of wildlife biologists. Jason also previews the film's July 17th premiere at the Wilma Theater in Missoula — the same night as Eastmans' elk documentary — as part of the RMEF Big Game Days event. 👉 Watch all of the EHJ Podcast episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3oV1kEbu74HrR_GEK5VL9pCc6dME5py_ 👉 Eastmans Journal Podcast Sponsors: Browning: https://bit.ly/Browning-Eastmans Eberlestock: https://bit.ly/Eberlestock-Eastmans Stealth Cam: https://bit.ly/StealthCam-Eastmans. Hornady: https://bit.ly/Hornady-Eastmans Leupold: https://bit.ly/Leupold-Eastmans Precision Pay: https://bit.ly/PrecisionPay-Eastmans