July 28th, 2006
REI Support Pledged. REI (Seattle) has just announced that they will be providing a $5000 conservation grant to the GBOP for our Bear Smart program in the town of Glacier. Many thanks to REI's Charlie Heggem, Duy Tran, and Ray Elliot for their support and encouragement!

June 29th, 2006
Black bear video clip
Click here to watch a short video clip (large 4MB file) of a black bear in a back yard in Sammamish, WA. At one point the bear displays aggression by bluff charging the person filming from inside the house. This bear has become habituated to humans, and may be food-conditioned due to the availability of garbage, bird seed, and other non-natural attractants. For tips on avoiding this kind of problem click here. 

June 29th, 2006
Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forest plan revision and grizzly bears
More information about grizzly bears and the USDA Forest Service Forest Plan Revision can be found on this USFS handout (100KB). 

June 22nd, 2006
State funding allows GBOP expansion
We would like to thank Senator Erik Poulsen and Senator Lisa Brown for their incredible support and encouragement over the last year. Thanks to them we have just received news that GBOP will receive funding from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to allow us to expand our education program south to encompass the remaining counties of the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone (Snohomish, King, Kittitas, Chelan). THANK YOU SENATORS!

June 1st, 2006
Glacier GBOP Bear Smart presentation
GBOP staff members Chris Morgan, Jim Davis, and Nan Laney were joined by 15 members of the Glacier community this week for an evening of fun and bear stories. In addition to hearing about the international bear work of Chris Morgan, the audience provided valuable feedback on GBOP's plan to help facilitate a Bear Smart program for the town of Glacier. See here for more information on our Bear Smart program.

May 27th, 2006
Black and grizzly bear observations being reported
As always at this time of year, we are starting to receive bear observation reports from members of the public. Some report black bears accessing bird feeders or garbage, while less frequently we receive reports of very rare grizzly bears (usually in the backcountry). For more information preventing nuisance bear activity see our Bear Smart pages. If you'd like to know how to identify a grizzly bear, click here.

May 30th, 2006
Woodland Park Zoo Support Pledged. Woodland Park Zoo (Seattle) has just announced that they will be providing a $5000 grant to the GBOP under their Partners for Wildlife Program. This is the fourth contribution GBOP has received from the zoo. This world class conservation organization is one of our most active and enjoyable partners. We would like to thank everyone at the zoo for their continued support, including Dr. Lisa Dabek, Harmony Frazier, Frank Hein, Suzanne Riley, and Stephanie Forbes.

May 15th, 2006
US Fish and Wildlife Service pledges continued support. Our enormous thanks to Ken Berg and his staff at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Lacey office (including Jim Michaels, Linda Saunders, Doug Zimmer, and Linda Kluemper). Ken recently announced continued funding support for GBOP. We very much enjoy the positive relationship that GBOP has with the USFWS (the government entity that is responsible for overseeing recovery).

March 15th, 2006
GBOP featured on NPR-KUOW radio in Seattle Jim Davis and Chris Morgan were guests on the Steve Scher show 'Weekday' today reaching a large audience across Western Washington with information about grizzly bears and GBOP. To download the one hour conversation as an MP3 (large file - approximately 9MB), please click here, or retrieve the file directly from the KUOW website.

March 12th, 2006
GBOP School Bear Trunk ready for use! The GBOP School Bear Trunk will be launched this month with the help of Kendall Elementary School. Read more about this exciting GBOP product here. Our sincere thanks to Kendall Elementary School and staff and to Defenders of Wildlife for sponsoring this special GBOP product.

January 26th, 2006
Glacier poised to become first Bear Smart community in Washington The small town of Glacier, WA sits in the heart of the North Cascades on the Mount Baker Highway. GBOP is working closely with residents there to distribute GBOP and Bear Smart information to prevent human-bear conflicts. Our thanks to the people of Glacier for their enthusiastic support and involvement. More about Bear Smart.

Left: Mission Impossible? A black bear makes an impressive attempt to access sunflower seeds from a bird feeder. Click here to find out if he was successful!

January 25th, 2006
IGBC pledges continued support for GBOP  Our sincere thanks to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee for their continued support of GBOP. In particular, many thanks to Steve Huffaker (Idaho Department of Fish and Game), Chris Smith (Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks), Ken Berg (US Fish and Wildlife Service), Jim Michaels (US Fish and Wildlife Service), Doug Zimmer (US Fish and Wildlife Service), and Linda Saunders (US Fish and Wildlife Service). IGBC website: http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/wildlife/igbc/

January 23rd, 2005
Help needed! Click here to find out how you can help GBOP's Bear Smart program on the ground.

November 21st, 2005
Move to take Yellowstone's grizzlies off endangered species list stirs debate click here for a recent press release on this issue, which has received widespread attention this week. Click here for two additional viewpoints. Click here for a copy of the Federal Register regarding this issue (800kb pdf).

November 11th, 2005
Sanitary Service Company of Bellingham supports GBOP Our sincere thanks to Paul Razore and Rodd Pemble for working with us to spread the word about GBOP's Bear Smart program. Keep your eye out for GBOP Bear Smart decals on SSC's dumpsters and household garbage cans (nearly two thousand of them!) in eastern Whatcom County. By helping us to reduce garbage attractants in bear country, SSC is reducing the likelihood of bear-human conflicts in the North Cascades. SSC serves 35,000 commercial and residential customers in Bellingham, Ferndale, Birch Bay and the majority of unincorporated Whatcom County. For more information, please visit www.ssc-inc.com/info.html . For more Bear Smart information, click here.

October 31st, 2005
GBOP hiring Okanogan County Field Coordinator GBOP is on the lookout for a suitable Okanogan Field Coordinator/educator. Click here for more information.

October 28th, 2005
Public attitude and knowledge survey results now online GBOP's second commissioned telephone survey asked more than 500 rural residents in the northwest portion of the recovery area about their opinions and attitudes towards grizzly bears and recovery. Some interesting results emerged, including the fact that 79% of respondents support grizzly bear recovery in the North Cascades (54% strongly). Click here for the 600kb pdf document.

October 20th, 2005
Ranching and Grizzly Bears video on Bellingham's Channel 10 The video provides background information on grizzly bears in the North Cascades and features ranchers from Montana who live and work in grizzly bear country. Broadcast times are: Fridays 9am; Mondays, Thursdays, Sundays 2:30pm; Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays 3am, plus occasional evening slots. Our thanks to Dal Neitzel at BTV10 for making this happen!

October 19th, 2005
Living in Bear Country video released! The Safety in Bear Country Society just announced the release of their third program in the Safety in Bear Country video series: Living in Bear Country. Living in Bear Country is the consensus opinion of leading experts on living safely in bear country. It provides practical advice on ways to minimize problems with bears in the places that people live. This program shows how making a few simple adjustments to our daily routine can reduce property damage and increase human safety. If bears start frequenting places where people live, then it's time for the entire community to acknowledge the problem and work together. By living responsibly in bear country both individuals and communities can help prevent conflicts with bears; making things safer for themselves and bears. Living in Bear Country is presented by the Safety in Bear Country Society in cooperation with the International Association for Bear Research and Management and was produced by Wild Eye Productions, Atlin, B.C. Living in Bear Country is available in VHF or DVD formats from Distribution Access at: Toll-free 1-888-440-4640, Fax 1-780-440-8899, www.distributionaccess.com, or sales@distributionaccess.com . The Safety in Bear Country Society’s other 2 programs, Staying Safe in Bear Country and Working in Bear Country, also are available in VHF or DVD formats from Distribution Access. 

September, 2005
US Fish and Wildlife Service pledges continued support. Our enormous thanks to Ken Berg and his staff at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Lacey office. Ken recently announced continued funding support for GBOP for the third consecutive year. We very much appreciate the positive relationship that GBOP enjoys with the USFWS (the government entity that is responsible for overseeing recovery).

August 8th, 2005
Get Bear Smart Certified!. Join the many people in the North Cascades who are taking steps to become Bear Smart - adopting ways to minimize conflicts with black and grizzly bears around their homes and communities. Complete and mail a Bear Smart home checklist and we'll send you a free refrigerator magnet and window sticker! For more information about GBOP's Bear Smart program, click here. You can now download the Bear Smart home checklist online at http://www.bearinfo.org/BearSmartCertificationChecklist.pdf 

July 26th, 2005
Defenders of Wildlife announces continued support for GBOP. Defenders of Wildlife announced today that it will be providing a grant to GBOP to cover the costs of printing additional copies of the very popular GBOP poster. This is the third contribution GBOP has received from Defenders, and we are very grateful for their continued support and encouragement. Thanks especially to Minette Johnson.

July 15th, 2005
Woodland Park Zoo Support Pledged. Woodland Park Zoo (Seattle) today announced that they will be providing a $3000 grant to the GBOP under their Wildlife Conservation Grant Program. This is the third contribution GBOP has received from the zoo and we are very fortunate to count them among our partners. GBOP's relationship with Woodland Park Zoo has flourished over the last three years, and we are excited to see it continue. Our thanks to all the staff at the zoo, including Dr. Lisa Dabek, Harmony Frazier, and Frank Hein.

May 22nd, 2005
Woodland Park Zoo events a roaring success! Mid-May saw Bear Awareness Week and some exciting demonstration-based events at Woodland Park Zoo. GBOP staff, community members, and partners took part in an array of activities, along with hundreds of members of the public, and school groups. Among other things, the zoo's brown bears pitted their brains and brawn against two bear resistant products - Counter Assault's Bear Keg and Crittercan's garbage can. The results were quite interesting! Click here for photographs.

March 25th, 2005
Thank you Counter Assault. A huge THANK YOU to Pride Johnson and the team at Counter Assault for donating two of their superb bear resistant food containers (left) for us to demonstrate at Woodland Park Zoo (May 2005). For more information on this and other Counter Assault products (such as bear pepper spray), please go to: www.counterassault.com . For pictures of the bears trying to access the BRFCs, click here.

More news....