Timothy Treadwell a Hero? Animal Planet's new 8-part series might paint him that way.

Oh for pete's sake...hat tip to Kodiak Konfidential:

Grizzly Man Diaries will draw upon the hundreds of hours of archived footage, private pages from his diaries and more than 10,000 still photographs. From the producers of both Grizzly Man and Herzog's new feature Encounters At The End Of The World, it premieres August 22.

Announcing the new series at the TCA Press Tour in Beverly Hills, Marjorie Kaplan, the president and general manager of Animal Planet Media, noted: "We all know how this tragic story concludes. But with this new series, Animal Planet really digs deep into the glory that Timothy saw in these magnificent creatures. These are the fascinating stories he died to tell."

The reality of the situation is that Treadwell's irresponsible behavior led to his death and the demise of his girlfriend, as well as the shooting of two bears.

Katmai park rangers who went Monday to retrieve the remains of Treadwell and Huguenard -- both of whom were largely eaten -- ended up killing two bears near the couple's campsite.

Katmai superintendent Deb Liggett said she was deeply troubled by the whole episode.

"The last time I saw Timothy, I told him to be safe out there and that none of my staff would ever forgive him if they had to kill a bear because of him,'' she said. "I kind of had a heart-to-heart with him. I told him he was teaching the wrong message.

"This is unfortunate, (but) I'm not surprised. It really wasn't a matter of if; it was just a matter of when.''

Then there's this idiot who already has Treadwell painted as a "hero":

"In a filmed scene of Timothy singing to a mother bear, flat on her back, with two cubs nursing on top of her, you imagined for a moment that she too enjoyed the song of gentleness. And you had no doubt that you were hearing a 'bear whisperer'."
--Louisa Wilcox, close friend of Timothy Treadwell

As you can see, I couldn't restrain myself from replying to that piece of tripe.

Making these films about Timothy Treadwell and the equally-deluded-now-dead Chris McCandless reflects the "Disneyfication" of some extremists in the environmental movement--city folk without training or experience coming to the harsh reality of Alaska, sure that they know what's best for the fuzzy animals and treating with disdain anyone who has actual expertise.

They either "get dead" real fast or end up depending on others to "save them."

On two occasions in recent years, hunter's guide Coke Wallace of Healy has rescued couples drawn to the McCandless site, in one case requiring individual airlifts to safety at the cost of $2,100 per trip, paid for by the state.

"A lot of people who come up here are woefully unprepared," said Wallace, interviewed by phone. He said he was escorting an NBC crew when he bumped into Paterson from North York at the site.

"I told him there was no way he was going to last with only 10 pounds of rice, then I tried to give him some more food. And he said, `No. I want to replicate it exactly. That'd be cheating,'" said Wallace.

"I told him, `Well don't replicate it exactly, I don't want to be hauling a dead body back.'"

These folks argue that they are "true" environmentalists because they love the beauty of nature while slapping human feelings and intelligence on their vision of the animal kingdom.

However, they are forgetting a very important aspect of "environmentalism," respect for nature's power and unpredictability as well as the needs, drives and instincts of its creatures. It was that lack of respect that led to the deaths of Treadwell and McCandless.

If the numbers of these new "worshippers" continue to grow and follow in their idols' footsteps, a repeat performance will, once again, only be a matter of "when."