With the demise of forestry, shipping and agriculture along the southern shore of Lake Superior over the past century, a once booming region is in decline. As the people have moved out, the biggest carnivore west of the Rockies, the American black bear, has moved back in. Today an estimated 30,000 bears roam Wisconsin forests. And after Labor Day, when the summer tourists are gone, it’s the bear hunters who stimulate the economy.

For Front and Center, I traveled with editor and publisher of In These Times magazine, Joel Bleifuss, to Northern Wisconsin to produce this piece about the big game industry that is emerging from the wilds of the Great North Woods.

This piece was done for the special series Front and Center on WBEZ about the Great Lakes Region.