Defenders' Experts
Florida Black Bears: In the Field
Activism is a way for us all to be involved in wildlife conservation. It isn’t all lobbying and organizing, there are plenty of ways Defenders of Wildlife and its members and supporters dig right in and help with projects on the ground.
Reducing Human and Bear Conflicts
Economic Incentives
In Florida, we have provided economic incentives to people or organizations interested in reducing human and bear interactions on their property.
We have helped purchase dumpsters and trash cans for Wekiwa Springs State Park and Seminole State Forest. Installation of these containers greatly reduces human/bear conflicts. When the bears learn that food is no longer available at the trash sites, they stop coming.
We have provided funds to a beekeeper in Umatilla to replacesolar batteries in electric fencing around his commercial beehives.
There are many innovative ways to keep humans and bears apart. We are helping to fund them.
Education
Defenders is educating residents of Franklin County in the Florida Panhandle to help teach them to live responsibly with the Florida black bear. These are communities in which human-bear conflicts are chronic and escalating.
- Our volunteer bear education coordinator gives presentations at elementary schools in Franklin County.
- Defenders staff, student interns and volunteers traveled to north Florida to work with the Florida Wildlife Commission to distribute 1,000 information packets door-to-door in the communities of Eastpoint, Carrabelle and Lanark.
Annual Florida Black Bear Festival
The Florida Black Bear Festival is an annual family oriented event featuring activities, presentations and field trips that provide visitors with an understanding about how bears live and how we can live among them. It happens every October in the wonderful town of Umatilla, Florida, the “Gateway to the Ocala National Forest.”
The festival, founded by Defenders of Wildlife in 1999, is now organized by a group of partners including Defenders of Wildlife, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the City of Umatilla, the Umatilla Chamber of Commerce, the U.S Forest Service, Walkabout Adventures and the Wildlife Foundation of Florida.
Bear Your Responsibility
Defenders’ plays a major role in the "Bear Your Responsibility" educational campaign, which focuses on areas in Florida that are experiencing the highest concentration of human/bear conflicts. Our efforts reach both rural and urban residents, with the goal of preventing conflicts before they occur.
By educating and involving Floridians who live in prime bear habitat, we can all help protect the remaining populations of the threatened Florida black bear.
More about Bear Your Responsibility
Reducing Human and Bear Conflicts Continued...
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