Starting Bear Smart Groups
Building a Bear Smart community doesn’t happen on its own. In almost every case, the movement toward improving the safety of bears and people begins with a small group of people who care enough to advocate for reducing human-bear conflicts in their communities.
Consider striking up a bear working group in your community. The title is a little deceiving. It’s not a group of bears working together on their own behalf, but rather a diverse group of stakeholders (i.e. people) working together to keep bears and people safe in the community they share.
This strategy has worked well in Whistler, where the Whistler’s Bear Advisory Committee (WBAC) brings together a variety of community stakeholders who collaborate together to minimize human-bear conflicts in the Resort Municipality of Whistler. This award-winning advisory group is comprised of representatives from two local Bear Smart organizations, the waste hauler, the local and provincial governments, the police, the local ski hill operator, and the Conservation Officer Service all meet regularly.
Among other things, the group develops and helps to implement solutions for minimizing human-bear conflicts, provides a forum for sharing information and resolving divergent views, and allows for a coordinated approach to community outreach and communications.
It’s important to understand that there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Many communities have successfully launched Bear Smart groups and organizations. With the help of colleagues from all over North America, the Get Bear Smart Society analysed and synthesized what works and what doesn’t in order to provide the following guidelines that can help you start a Bear Smart movement in your community.
Get started by getting together
The first step is to gather together some like-minded locals who share a vision for a more bear-friendly community. The success of small, grassroots organizations almost always depends on the passion and commitment of one or two individuals, but it also requires the buy-in, support and commitment of a diverse team that can help get the work done.
Don’t just involve the usual suspects; invite all the stakeholders in the community who must be involved to make your efforts successful: politicians from all levels of government, environmentalists, bear managers and conservation officers, academics, First Nations and Tribal Nations, business leaders, biologists, waste haulers and concerned citizens. They may not all formally “join” your group, but it’s important that they feel like they are part of the process—and the solution.
Make it real
The most instinctual response is to get busy doing “the work,” but the first thing to do is to figure out who you are (as a group) and what you want to do. Sketch out and agree to a vision statement, your mission and some short-term and intermediate goals you hope to achieve. There are several resources available to help you craft your vision and mission, like this article from Charity Village.
While not always necessary or the right fit for a group, it can be useful to establish your organization as a legal entity so you will be recognized and so you can apply for a wider variety of funding. You can do this by forming a nonprofit society in your province or state. It’s also important to apply for charitable status at the federal level because many granting agencies require charitable status from their applicants. Charitable status also allows you to issue tax receipts for donations, which individual donors often ask for. Click here for information on incorporating and applying for charitable status in Canada. Click here for information on the process in the United States.
Build a core group
If your group goes the nonprofit route, as a part of the process, you will need to form a board of directors to oversee the organization’s operations. This is an important part of the process that will influence the success or failure of your organization. Too often, founders choose a handful of people who are passionate about the issue but who don’t have the skills needed to run a successful organization. It’s better to ask yourself, “What skills does the organization need to be successful?”, and then go out and find the best people you can to provide those skills. Wild Apricot has some good information about how to recruit, build and manage an effective board.
Even if your group does not have nonprofit status, it is still important to form a committee or working group that represents the community and has the skills to move your mission and vision forward.
Someone with non-profit management experience is extremely helpful, and an accountant who can help keep the books and file annual financial statements is almost essential. Other skill sets to consider for a Bear Smart organization are media and communications, education, a biologist and/or bear manager, environmental advocacy, a lawyer, a local politician, and an experienced fundraiser.
Keep your board, committee, or working group lean and efficient—perhaps five to nine people who are committed to the issue and willing to put some time in every month to make sure the organization is healthy so the staff and/or volunteers can achieve the organization’s goals.
Plan the work, work the plan
Now that you’ve got a core group of volunteers and a committed board, it’s time to craft a strategic plan to help guide the group toward its vision. This needn’t be complicated or onerous. Depending on how many people there are in your core circle, and how aligned their ideas are, it shouldn’t take more than a half-day session to brainstorm a strategic plan. This will allow you to re-evaluate your vision and mission, conduct a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), and add some strategic goals and objectives and the strategies you can use to reach them. Don’t spend too much time on this, but do do it. Keep it short, sweet and implementable.
Build a Bear Smart Community
A great deal of research and experience points to what is required to make a home, business, neighbourhood or community Bear Smart. In B.C., for example, the Bear Smart Community Program is based on a series of criteria that communities must achieve in order to be recognized as being Bear Smart:
Prepare a bear hazard/conflict assessment of the community and surrounding area.
Prepare a bear-human conflict management plan that is designed to address the bear hazards and land-use conflicts identified in the previous step.
Revise planning and decision-making documents to be consistent with the bear/human conflict management plan.
Implement a continuing education program, directed at all sectors of the community.
Develop and maintain a bear-proof municipal solid waste management system.
Implement “Bear Smart” bylaws prohibiting the provision of food to bears as a result of intent, neglect or irresponsible management of attractants.
See this background report for more detailed information on each of the criteria, including examples of their successful application. In the U.S., the IGBC’s Bear Smart Community framework offers guidance on how to become Bear Smart, based on the B.C. program. (The U.S. does not currently offer formal certification of being “Bear Smart,” therefore there aren’t any criteria that must be met. Still, each step of the framework is important and Bear Smart efforts will have a hard time succeeding if elements are skimmed over.)
What your organization or group actually does to move your community toward Bear Smartness will depend on the specific problems and opportunities unique to your community and the skills and aptitudes of your members. If you’ve completed a bear conflict/hazard assessment, you should understand what problems and opportunities exist, and can better pick where to start or what to tackle next. If your community already has a bear-resistant waste management system, it may be time to focus on education. Or perhaps you need better bylaws and/or regulations to guide and encourage individual behaviour. Maybe it’s time to encourage the use of non-lethal bear management techniques to help the local bears learn what kind of behaviour can and can’t be tolerated. These are the kinds of questions that should be answered in your strategic plan.