Photo: Nick Kelley

The last couple of years have produced some horror stories of national park visitors interacting with wildlife. The baby bison put in the trunk of a car, the bear selfie craze in Tahoe, and countless other close encounters that happen almost daily in our parks that don’t make the news. These days, most people just really want a picture.



Mark Biel, Glacier National Park’s Natural Resources Program Manager, is on the front lines of this issue everyday, which is exactly how he came up with the idea for Gracie. At two years old, Biel’s jovial border collie, which he bought as a pet, is just finishing up training to essentially become the first canine wildlife manager in the National Park Service. Gracie has two jobs: work with Biel in the field to keep animals a safe distance away from visitors, and the other as a sort of figurehead and excuse for Biel and other park employees to talk about how to interact with animals.



Here, a few images from the time I spent with Biel and Gracie at the park in northern Montana this August.



Photo: Two bighorn sheep causing a welcomed traffic delay near Lunch Creek in Glacier National Park.