BAYFIELD, WI Park ranger and Omaha native Jill Novak has just seen a bear outside of the zoo for the first time in her life.
“I knew when I came to Wisconsin that the environment would be completely different, like, there would be trees and the weather would be a little chillier than back home,” said Novak who was wearing her winter coat and fleece hat on a balmy 45 degree day in mid-June.
“I mean, academically I knew that there were bears here, but seeing one so close, it just freaked me out. My coworkers were so cavalier about it. They gave me that song and dance about the bear being more scared of me than I was of him. Of course they’ve all been here for years, so I guess seeing bears is old hat for them.”
Novak admitted to having several brushes with dangerous wildlife while growing up in suburban Omaha, including having a garter snake waved in her face by a mean neighborhood boy, being stung by a sweat bee while at summer camp, and finding a bat sleeping on her front porch in the middle of the day. Prior to working with the park service, Novak spent ten years in the Air Force stationed in Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Dakota.
The American black bear was reportedly 200 yards away from where Novak was standing and fled for the woods like a bat out of hell when a blue Kia Rio drove past.
The Conservative Conservationist 