Holly, Den Video, DNR - UPDATE January 29, 2016
In this 6-minute video, Holly rakes, looks, slaps at a vole, and found a old paper dinner bag. She then settles back to rest.
https://www.facebook.com /toni.embree.50 /videos/1176422332390395
Today, DNR Research Director Dr. Lou Cornicelli responded saying:
Lynn, We apologize for the time required to complete your permit request. This email constitutes formal acknowledgement from me that you are declining special permit #21083. Consequently, the permit is not valid and you cannot place a camera in a den occupied by a wild bear. Lou
I responded:
Lou,
Thank you for the note. Yes, I agree. We won?t place a den cam.
I?d hoped for a miracle of cooperation. I wanted to be able to praise the DNR and show what we could accomplish working together. I wanted our work with the Den Cams to speak for itself, eliminating any need for me to respond to DNR accusations. I had hoped top DNR officials would see that no one wins without cooperation and that I was offering a win-win. The public and legislators would see that we had put the past behind us and were moving forward doing good science and unprecedented education all to the benefit of Minnesota. I always prefer to go forward without rehashing history which has two sides. That?s how we built the Bear Center in the face of DNR adversity.
However, my hopes were not reflected in the permit and its pages of defamatory material. The best we can do on the Den Cams now is wait for an election and hope for better leadership. Without Den Cams to speak for my work, I?m stuck having to refute the pages of half-truths about me that your attorneys thought should be included in the permit and be made public. Although I?d rather be moving forward (gathering data, publishing, improving the Bear Center), I can?t let the DNR and its attorneys blacken my name at a time when DNR legislation is coming up that would devastate what research and publishing opportunities I have left?legislation that would deal a significant blow to the economically depressed Ely area.
For now, I?ll occasionally visit the dens, staying back from the entrances and legally taking video and stills using long lenses. In the update on bearstudy.org tonight, I?ll show an example of that from 2007. It shows June and her cub snuggled together sleeping undisturbed. June knew the videographer and had long before learned to go about her life undisturbed in the presence of an observer.
All that said, I want to keep the door open. Later this year, I?ll revisit the possibility of den cams for this coming winter.
Lynn
Jewel in her den - 10/22/15
Jewel in her den - 10/22/15

The video mentioned above shows June on February 21, 2007, snuggled with cute Cal or Bud (Lily hidden).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYdDCioeFdI. With the advances in video technology since 2007, video from Jewel?s den will be better. She is pictured undisturbed in the den last October when people she knew snapped the picture from outside the den due to the wide open entrance.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center