Getting Started
Anything worth doing takes time and effort and building a Bear Smart Community is no exception. The movement toward reducing bear conflicts throughout a community often begins with an individual or small group of people who are dedicated to a clean and safe community, and willing to work collaboratively to that end. Sometimes a nonprofit is involved; other times, a bear manager spurs action.
The very first action is learning: collecting information about bear presence and recent conflicts, talking with people about how they feel about bears and their interest in participating, and learning about bears and conflict prevention generally. Once you find others with the shared goals of starting a community effort, it can help to form a working group, whether it’s formal or informal, but this can happen at different stages of the project, depending on the people involved and the progress being made.
Learn and Gather
Bear Smart initiatives have been started by single individuals, town officials, groups of interested citizens/residents, nonprofits, and others. It can be a combination of these. Every project begins and evolves differently.
Irrespective of who the initiating people are, there are certain activities and information that help to engage others. Having an idea of current and potential bear conflicts is helpful. Some communities have a lot of black bear conflicts, and this can be a motivator. Other communities may want to prepare for grizzly bear presence if bears are moving closer. Gather information about conflicts, risks, the attractants around the community and begin to talk with people about their interest in addressing these things. This can start informally and without any particular agenda as you learn how others think about bears in/around your municipality. As you talk with people, you will learn who is knowledgeable or motivated, who may present challenges, who may want to join the effort and how they can help.
Other ideas to gauge interest and begin to organize – whether an individual or small group of interested community members:
Participate in local events like a farmers’ market or other gatherings where you can have a table, talk with people, and collect information.
Meet with local officials, a town mayor, or make a comment at a public meeting about your interest in exploring a Bear Smart Initiative there.
Meet with a local wildlife official about what they think the needs are and how they might support or participate in an effort.
Hold a public meeting, “town hall” or other event where this topic can be discussed openly.
Contact a local/regional nonprofit working in wildlife conservation or community building to see what their interest may be or what resources they may have to help. Nonprofits engaging in Bear Smart Community work can be helpful consultants to community leaders in this process.
It may be useful before getting too far into engaging with people to gather some basic information, such as information about bear conflicts and risks (attractants, along with bear presence), and to read up on the Bear Smart Community process on this website. It will be important to consider the specific demographics or social make-up of your locale, who may be supportive, who may not be supportive, etc. – so that you can be strategic as you think about bringing interested individuals together.
Remember, too, that it can take time to get an initiative going or to begin to form enough interest that you can organize a group to work on it together. Sometimes smaller groups of volunteers, business owners, and other community members work together on some initial projects before forming a working group or while they slowly put one together. Other groups of residents have established momentum with/in a group but without designating the group as a Bear Smart working group.