In one sense, Grafton’s bears came from the woods, and in another sense, they came lumbering out of a distant prehistoric era. But in yet another, equally true, sense, they came from the Commonwealth of New Hampshire. Each bear in Grafton was put there, on purpose, by active changes to state policies that previously supported a bear-free landscape. By the time the Free Town Project began, Grafton was just one tiny part of a vast landscape in the midst of a great sixty-year bear expansion that was cheered by wildlife conservationists, photographers, and recreational hunters.
