La Cañada Flintridge’s very own author and columnist Chris Erskine has a new book hitting the stands, “What The Bears Know,” about the life of the bear whisperer of Mammoth Lakes, Steve Searles.
Erskine, a weekly columnist for Outlook Newspapers, has produced a touching and humorous memoir highlighting Searles’ life and achievements, especially in forging a relationship with bears in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Searles has dedicated 25 years of his life to the bears and wildlife of the town of Mammoth Lakes as its wildlife officer, where he was well known to the area since it was first incorporated as a city in 1984.
The book (not to be confused with a historical piece on the biology of bears, Erskine chuckled) takes readers through a “mystical” experience of Searles’ life growing up and his experience in learning more about the emotions behind the bears in Mammoth Lakes.
Searles has worked with many animals during his job but said that a bear is a real “showstopper” when it comes to seeing wildlife in person.
“For thousands of years, people have been fascinated and paid homage to bears of any kind in the world,” Searles told the Outlook Valley Sun. “They’re front and center. Every law enforcement and sheriff’s department in California has the bear logo on it.”
Over the years, Searles has witnessed people scream, yell, laugh and even cry when they have encountered a bear, but he has focused his life efforts on how bears are much more than just a reaction or a danger to encounter. Searles’ mission of learning more about the animal and the act of coexisting has been essential to saving their species, rather than just killing them on site, which used to be common practice.
“I’ve spent my career trying to compete against misinformation,” said Searles. “And in this book, a lot of what we talked about is contrary to what we’ve all been bombarded with about a relationship with bears, and how we should conduct ourselves. We tried to put a lot of that to rest in our own way.”
Erskine first discovered Searles while he was doing a feature on him for the Los Angeles Times and was left intrigued with the man’s experience and reputation in Mammoth Lakes, thinking there was much more to his story.
The two agreed to start producing a memoir based on Searles about three years ago and have since spent day after day on the phone for countless hours.
After growing a fast friendship and collaboration, Searles commends Erskine for his dedication to the craft and the real story.
“He patiently, day after day, listened to my story and retold my story, and never once finished a sentence or thought for me,” said Searles.
Searles, who is “computer illiterate,” doesn’t know how to type and didn’t do well in school, said it would be too hard to write the book himself. He believes Erskine did a great job in writing his story.
“I really exposed myself to Chris and he made that possible,” said Searles. “If I was slobbering, crying like a baby, he would just wait. And when I could catch my breath, we’d continue to talk and write.”
It felt unnatural at first to talk so deeply about his life with another man, Searles admitted, but he continued to feel heard by Erskine.
“Steve was so honest,” said Erskine. “I mean, he opened his soul for this book. And I wanted to respect that, I wanted to treat him well.”
Erskine, too, had his challenges, but was surprised again and again by Searles’ words.
“It’s just amazing to me, how he can summarize the feelings we have,” said Erskine. “The feelings the bears have toward us, and what it all means.
“He’s got a great soul,” he added. “He’s got a great enlightened view of the world, the whole world — not just the human world, not just the wilderness — but sort of the juncture of the two of them.”
Erskine, who has written five books in his career, noted how this one was “way harder” than anything he has done before.
“I think writing is a muscle and, and anything you do helps,” said Erskine. “So [my] earlier books helped this, but this was so different from anything else I had done. A memoir is tough.”
He admitted it took him time to, “reflect on Steve and sound like Steve as much as I could.”
Erskine initially went into the project blind as he didn’t know exactly what he would learn from Searles, but was grateful in the end to have had a clear message of what is important when talking about bears.
“I went into this thinking I was going to be eaten alive by bears,” said Erskine. “I soon realized that I had nothing to fear.
“I love the message that we fear things because we don’t understand them,” he added. “And if we took the time to learn about them, we would realize we could eliminate a lot of fears in our lives.”
He praises Searles for his time in educating the world with this book and his personal story.
“Steve comes at it from the emotional standpoint that nobody else ever has,” said Erskine. “And I think that’s his superpower, just being patient with the bears, being understanding and coexisting with the bears. If bears were so darn dangerous, Steve wouldn’t be alive.”
The two can’t think of a better time to release their book into the world, since bear sightings have become more common in neighborhoods like LCF in the last two years.
“I think our timing is pretty good,” said Erskine. “I think our timing is good for the bears. I think it’s good for the readers. We live in such jagged, jittery times in the world, where people are so afraid of the future.”
Whenever he is asked what people need to know about bears, Searles said he responds: “People have to kind of choose to learn, educate themselves and do better.”
Erskine and Searles will reunite on Oct. 3 at Vroman’s Bookstore on 695 E. Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena for the release of the memoir. People are welcome to join the two at the bookstore at 7 p.m. for free and to sign their copy of the book.
First published in the September 28 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
