“Another idea is to not load the train cars so full, an idea that BNSF does not like.”
Trains have killed 63 grizzlies near Glacier National Park since 1980, eight of them in 2019. Grain spills from overloaded railcars, ferments in the rain, and the bears eat it on the tracks. BNSF rejects loading cars less full and rejects halting trains in bad weather. A retired federal ecologist says the railroad is waiting for the grizzly to lose endangered status so it never needs a take permit.