Erwin ("Erv") Evert was killed by a grizzly bear yesterday afternoon near his cabin along Kitty Creek, just east of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
We got the word early this morning as ironically we are packing to drive to our own cabin which sits a few hundred yards up the creek from Erv and Yolanda's.
The US Forest Service relocates problem bears to our drainage from throughout the Yellowstone region. We understand that two young males were recently brought in that had killed a calf and were hanging around ranches.
An email from one of our cabin neighbors said that it took Search and Rescue until 1 am this morning to recover his body from difficult terrain. The Forest Service rangers we know are all at the site (no cell phone coverage) so we are waiting for more news.
Erv had just published his book culminating 39 years of collection and identification of plants in the greater Yellowstone area.