On New Yearâs Day, as the birds and the bears did their thing, one of their greatest admirers passed from the earth. Grizzly 399, arguably the valleyâs biggest celebrity, waddled through the snow, leading her elk-fattened brood of four cubs north toward the den, while the man who championed the valleyâs wild creatures for nearly half a century took his final breath. Now more than ever, our increasingly divided and contentious world needs nature and beauty. The awe and wonder that comes from watching a wandering grizzly, a mousing coyote or a soaring raven can right or restore us. Bert Raynes knew this to be true decades ago. He wrote as much in a long-ago âFar Afieldâ column for the Jackson Hole News, reprinted in the 1998 anthology âThe Curmudgeon Chronicles.â