Doug and Lynne Seus, a husband and wife team, followed their dream and adopted their first grizzly bear cub in 1977, and named him Bart the Bear. Through their industry work with Bart the Bear and their humane training methods, the Seuses spawned a legion of followers. With Bart as ambassador, the Seuses launched Vital Ground in 1990 through the purchase of 240 acres of prime grizzly bear habitat adjoining protected land in The Nature Conservancy’s Pine Butte Swamp Preserve along the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains in Montana. Doug and Lynne are now the human parents to Bart the Bear 2, his sister Honey Bump and the eldest of the three, Tank.
For Doug, the joy of working with bears is about building a relationship with them. Today, the Seuses operate Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife Ranch and focus exclusively on grizzly bears and wolves. At present, a substantial amount of their time, resources and the talent of their animals are dedicated to promoting the work of Vital Ground.