Coexisting with Bears in Fish Creek Provincial Park

Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society

Details

Southern Alberta

52 52 votes

The Idea

Bears were once a rare occurrence in Fish Creek Provincial Park, but over the past several years bear sightings and warnings have become more and more common. With over 350,000 people living in neighbourhoods close to Fish Creek Provincial Park, there are many opportunities for this growing bear population and humans to come into conflict.The Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society is dedicated to helping people living around the park to coexist with their wildlife neighbours, and are looking to create new educational programming focused on how people can live safely around bears.The proposed programming is designed to help residents better understand bear ecology and behaviour, reduce uncertainty and concern around bear activity, and support informed, practical responses when living in a wildlife-rich environment.

Your support will enable us to deliver critical bear education programming, engaging community members of all ages in ways to prevent human-bear conflict. These opportunities will include tours, pop-up visitor centres throughout the park, community events booths, displays in the Fish Creek Provincial Park Visitor Centre, youth nature programs and a fall 2027 BearSmart Community Day event.

Please help us keep bears and people safe in Fish Creek Provincial Park and surrounding neighbourhoods by supporting this program today!

Who Will Benefit?

The Coexisting with Bears program has tremendous potential impact. Fish Creek Provincial Park is visited approximately 3 million times annually, and has more than 350,000 neighbours living in communities touching the park. This includes adults, youth, and families, who are not used to living in active bear communities and are keen to learn more about how to live peacefully around bears. This program will benefit all those living in local communities, as well as visitors from outside of Calgary and future generations of residents. Additionally, this program will also benefit the bears and other wildlife species living in and around Fish Creek Provincial Park!