Ovando sees empathy, kindness and curiosity following fatal bear attack

In the wake of a tragic grizzly attack that claimed the life of visiting cyclist Leah Lokan on July 6, Ovando has seen an outpouring of support as it makes plans to ensure nothing like that ever happens again.

A retired registered nurse and an avid mountain biker, Lokan, 64, was eight days into a trip along a portion of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route with her sister Kim Lokan and a friend, Katie Boerner.

Lokan opted to spend her night in Ovando in her tent, in a camping area near the Ovando Post Office. A male grizzly entered the area in the early hours of July 6, but campers chased it away with bear spray. Shortly after 3 a.m. he returned and fatally mauled Lokan, who had chosen to remain in her tent after the area had been cleared of attractants.

A fatal grizzly attack inside a town, even one as small as Ovando, is practically unheard of in North America.

“In Alaska and Canada, some of the park systems, it has happened in campground settings before, but it’s very, very rare,” Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Bear Management Specialist Jamie Jonkel said.

Responses to a tragedy

The fatal attack rocked the town, which has built a reputation as a welcoming destination for cyclists and fishermen.

The shock of the attack hit Blackfoot Angler owner Kathy Schoendoerfer particularly hard, given both her involvement with the cycling community and because she and her husband Travis Thurmond connected with Lokan over the fact they all hailed from the same area of California.

Schoendoerfer has long been a cheerleader for developing Ovando’s reputation as a cycle-friendly community, a push that paid off with recognition in 2018 as the Montana Tourism’s Community of the Year.

“Being that for over a decade that I have promoted that this is a safe haven for cyclists, I got reality handed to me on a silver tray,” she said.

“There has been a lot of empathy from people,” said Leigh Ann Valiton of the Blackfoot Commercial Company, “because it was absolutely devastating.”

For Schoendoerfer, the response from both strangers and Lokan’s family has been “astonishing.”

“People will come in who you don’t know, and they will just basically say that ‘I’m thinking of you.’ I think it touched all of them,” she said. “When the family comes in and gives you a big hug, you feel like you’ve been forgiven even though you’re probably not at fault. I’m very proud of this town and I am totally humbled over how much everybody cares.”

Although most of the response has been supportive and positive, Valiton said they did see a couple cancellations at the Blackfoot Inn shortly after the first news stories of the mauling broke. “I think they were coming here fishing, so they were going to be here for a couple days, and they weren’t comfortable with it, and that’s OK.”

It also gave them a first-hand look at the inaccurate media reporting of tragedies amid the 24-hour news cycle. She said ‘there wasn’t a blade of truth” in any of the early news releases.

At Trixi’s, located along Highway 200, rather than in downtown Ovando, Tiffanie Zavarelli said they heard some negativity about the attack from people passing through, as well as quite a bit of morbid curiosity.

“Everybody’s like ‘where’s the bear attack?’ Everybody wants to know that,” she said a few days after the attack. “I think we’re so used to people being able to come up and soak up the beauty and not worry. I think we’re all in a state of shock, little jumpy and a little overwhelmed.”

Tiffanie and her husband Ryan Zavarelli took over ownership of Trixi’s from Ryan’s parents, Cindy and Ray Francis on April 1. She admits she hasn’t been in Ovando long, but hopes people passing through will understand the Ovando is a small, family community and will choose to be kind instead of negative.

Tiffanie sees more concern from people from neighboring communities. “We all neighbor each other. It could have been Seeley; it could have been Lincoln. It could have been Helmville. You do get people and that compassion, which the world needs more of now.”

To help community members from around Ovando in the wake of the attack, Powell County Sheriff Gavin Roselles hosted a critical stress management session at the Ovando School July 13. The session was designed to provide resources and serve as a safe sounding board for affected locals, away from the media and without FWP present.

Bear Down

When Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced July 14 that DNA confirmed the bear killed near Ovando was the same one that had fatally attacked Lokan, the small community breathed a collective sigh of relief.

The bear had eluded efforts to capture him for three days, but was finally shot by wildlife officials just after midnight on July 9, as he approached a trap set near a chicken coop about two miles east of town, which had been raided prior to the attack on Lokan.

Although there were unconfirmed reports the bear may have had an injury that prompted his behavior, Jamie Jonkel said that doesn’t appear to be the case.

“He had injuries from breeding season,” he said. “He had bites on the neck and bites on the shoulder, nothing terrible. They were in the healing process. They looked worse than they were, but pretty typical fighting wounds from breeding season.”

Jonkel doesn’t have an easy explanation for the attack, given the relative lack of conflicts until just a couple days prior to it. “I think it was more of this sort of weird thing that happened.”

The attack on Lokan appears to be the first fatal attack on a person camping in the Upper Blackfoot region.

Jonkel said the only other fatal bear attacks in the Ovando area over the last century have involved hunters. Timothy Hilston was killed by a grizzly while hunting in 2001, and in 1958 a man named Sam Adams was believed to have been killed by a grizzly while hunting in the mountains northeast of Ovando.

Mitigating conflicts

“This has never happened in the history of Ovando, and we never expect it to happen again, but we want to take all precautions to make sure,” Schoendoerfer said.

Confirmation of the death of the rogue bear prompted Ovando to re-open its in-town campsites July 17, with the addition of new signs reminding people that they are in bear country.

Three bear-proof food storage boxes, provided by Jonkel, are also on hand at the three camping areas in Ovando. Jonkel said he dropped a fourth box off at Hooper Park in Lincoln as well.

“They’re so bear proof I’m having to put instructions on them because I cannot figure it out,” Schoendoerfer said. “A bear could probably kick it around, but they’re not going to get anything out of it.”

The boxes, old, insulated military food containers reinforced with steel brackets and hinges, are a temporary solution until newer storage containers arrive.

“(We) just ordered them a couple days ago,” Jonkel said. “They’ll probably arrive in a couple weeks. Three will go to Ovando, one will come to Hooper.”

The (Blackfoot) Challenge is coming to my rescue with this. Jamie Jonkel everybody has volunteered to make sure we never have this happen again,” Schonedoerfer said.

According to their website, the Blackfoot Challenge is “working closely with the residents and business owners in Ovando to respond to this event. We will work with the community and agency personnel to implement appropriate strategies and tools to prevent future incidents.” Seth Wilson, Blackfoot Challenge executive director, told the BVD he was working with the board of directors and Wildlife Committee on their response.

Schoendoerfer said the Blackfoot Community Bible Church, which opened its doors to cyclists shortly after the attack, has chosen to remain open to cyclists for the remainder of the season, allowing them to sleep in their basement. The Ovando school is also opening its doors to the larger, supported bike tours that will be coming through town.

“We have a couple of groups that had planned on camping in the park,” said Valiton, who also serves as the lead teacher for the school. “Since the incident they had been a little leery, so we offered the school to them.”

Schoendoerfer said she’s even had offers from some area ranchers to let cyclists camp in areas fenced off with electric fences.

A wake-up call

The attack should be a wake up for larger communities like Lincoln and Seeley Lake, which are also in bear country, but have more issues with attractants, Jonkel said.

“Seeley has got a horrendous situation there with garbage and bird feeders and about 500 times the amount of attractants as Ovando,” he said. “Ovando really was quite clean. They’ve got bear resistant containers, a few bird feeders and then those few chicken coops.”

Although he believes Lincoln is in better shape that Seeley in terms of attractants, he said in terms of prime bear habitat, Lincoln’s probably even better than Seeley.

“What keeps most of the bears out of town are those big riparian and wet areas, and the swamp just south and west of town. At any given time, there are grizzlies down there. Every month in the spring, summer and fall. It’s such good habitat they don’t often venture into town,” he said.

Nevertheless, he’s concerned the relative lack of recent conflicts may be causing people in Lincoln to become a bit lackadaisical. “Everyone’s sort of like ‘oh, yeah, everything’s good,’ but there are way too many bird feeders; way too many professional squirrel feeders; way too many people sneaking deer blocks to deer, elk and moose; way too many salt licks and way too many folks with garbage cans outside and birdfeeders swinging.”

He said bears that do come into town find attractants almost immediately.

Jonkel also noted that newcomers to the region who are unfamiliar with bears may cause issues with attractants.

“I have worked with communities where, for five years l have had no problems at all, then a new person will move in who I haven’t met, they slap out some deer blocks, put up birdfeeders and have their garbage out. Almost immediately you’ll have two or three bears trained up.”