#106 | Inside the American Bear Foundation: Bear Hunting, Conservation & the Grizzly Fight | Joe Kondelis

Brandon Mason sits down in person with Joe Kondelis, founder of the American Bear Foundation, for a wide-ranging conversation on everything bear. Joe walks through how the foundation started back in 2007 out of his own move to Cody and a frustration that black bears had no advocacy group of their own, and how it's grown from a three-state effort into chapters across the country. The two dig into the July 2026 grizzly 4(d) rule and what it actually means (spoiler: it's not delisting), the political tug-of-war keeping grizzlies on the endangered species list, ballot-box biology, and why hunters are the missing piece in grizzly conservation. Along the way they trade stories on Alaska bear country, sizing bears in the field, color phases, and why the pursuit of bears gets in your blood and doesn't let go.

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