Cut out my eyes. I've seen it all. A grizzly researcher is seeking 150 people to carry backpacks filled with rotten fish and cow blood into the rugged backcountry of Glacier National Park.

According to the article in the Billings Gazette, researcher Kate Kendall wants "the 150-member crew (to) bushwhack across Glacier National Park and surrounding wildlands, stringing barbed wire 'traps' intended to snare grizzly hair. The traps are each baited with three liters of the fish-and-blood lure."

Kendall says the job requires work in remote backcountry areas, "and you have to want to bushwhack and carry a lot of weight." Ms. Kendall forgets to mention one other job requirement: you must be willing to be mauled by grizzlies who aren't polite enough to wait for you to place the bait in traps.

Each year, Glacier National Park has one or two hikers who run into grizzly trouble--and all they're carrying is dried jerky and perhaps a few twinkies. Has no one considered what might happen when 150 hikers (and let's be honest: they will be metropolitan folks who want to "get back to nature" for a summer) set off into the backcountry with 50 pounds of bear bait strapped to their backs?

I smell something fishy, and it ain't just the bear bait.