Bear Wise Jackson Hole is a decades-long partnership between the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Bridger-Teton National Forest, Grand Teton National Park, and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation that aims to provide community resources and educational tools to prevent conflicts with bears, ultimately helping to protect these incredible creatures. The main goals are to mitigate the risk of bears accessing human food sources in developed areas and to encourage community members to report any bear conflicts promptly to wildlife managers.
With the support of the Grand Teton National Park Foundation and many other local organizations and agencies, the Bear Wise Jackson Hole partnership made significant progress in 2023. The goal was to reduce bear conflicts and wildlife feeding in the community by utilizing digital and print media, in person events, presentations, and door-to-door outreach to educate visitors and residents about how to live and recreate safely in bear country.
2023 outreach successes:
- 4,317 households in the Town of Jackson received educational materials three times via their water bill.
- All residents and businesses in Teton County (15,440 unique addresses) received educational materials via direct mailer.
- 850 households in the Town of Jackson Bear Conflict Zone received educational door hangers.
- Three electric fences were installed on Teton County properties to prevent bears from accessing chicken coops and apiaries.
- The Bear Wise coordinator spoke with approximately 1,500 people at local events, presentations, workshops, and door to door outreach about how to reduce bear conflict on their property.
- In a joint effort with Teton County, Bear Wise marked 650 non-compliant trash cans to educate residents about the new LDRs that require the use of a bear-resistant trash can. We witnessed bear-resistant trash can compliance improve in the Town of Jackson (an area of Teton County not previously required to have a bear-resistant trash can) from ~15% to ~55%.
- Instructed approximately 500 people how to properly use bear spray and gave away 70 cans to recreators deemed high risk (e.g., antler hunters).
- Instituted/led quarterly partner meetings to coordinate partner outreach efforts and share resources. Collaborated with at least two partners on ten separate occasions for outreach and education events.
2023 Bear Program Manager Kole Stewart said this about the program: “The major take away is that Teton County is more than 80% compliant with residential trash can regulations and we literally depleted the national supply of bear resistant cans, which is unprecedented for how long these regulations have been in place!”
Grand Teton National Park Foundation is proud to be one of many supporters of this community-wide effort that helps ensure grizzly and black bears continue to thrive in our local ecosystem. To learn more about Bear Wise Jackson Hole, visit their website here.
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