The sun came out, brightening the snow and putting a sparkle in the eyes of chickadees. The view past the chickadee is across Woods Lake where beavers are busy eating and sleeping in their lodge on the shore. Deer tracks cover the Wildlife Research Institute yard. The driveway shot shows the Research Center, Lynn’s van that carries participants in the Black Bear Field Courses, and the second floor windows where this is being written.
We loved your response of wanting to help Ely’s Food Shelf in the name of the research bears we are trying to protect. There is a discussion page now with the contact information at http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=263755115498&topic=18988.
The highlight today was seeing the Black Bear Box and its contents that Trish Kirk and Team put together. Part of that team is Trish’s husband Tim Muench who built the boxes. Tomorrow, we’ll show some of the contents. This is a big step forward for the Educational Outreach Project. The boxes, 12 of them at this point, will circulate among schools, provide feedback, and get better and better. They are off to a great start from what we have seen. More tomorrow.
There has been some confusion about the bear stories we asked for in the update a couple nights ago. This is the same request we made in the March 25 update. The stories submitted in response to that request were accidentally deleted. For more detail on what type of stories we’re looking for, we quote the March 25 update:
We have long thought of collecting people’s bear encounters for a book. 92,000 Facebook fans might hold the key. The stories need not be long or exciting. Something as simple as “I saw a bear and it ran away” would be okay, fleshed out with the location, what you were doing, etc. Just the fact that it’s a bear is enough excitement. We’re thinking of the stories being short, like a paragraph or a page or two. Next, we would need someone to edit the stories a bit possibly and design the book. We’re imagining that the book might be used as bedtime stories. The book will contrast with hunting magazines because it will not be a lot of hype and danger—just stories of real bears. Most of the stories will likely be of benign encounters and end by expressing the feelings the people have about the experience. It will also contrast with newspaper stories that usually talk about bear encounters as problems that must be dealt with before something terrible happens. The book will be about what happened, not about what the person was afraid would happen. Just good factual events and the person’s feelings about it. If you want to contribute and give permission to publish your story, email your story to
Thank you for all you do and for what is coming out of the Education Project Corelyn Senn is coordinating.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center