Project overview: Support the continued success of Yosemite’s Human–Bear Management team by purchasing new, longer-lasting GPS collars, creating long-lasting educational tools and blogs, and hiring new staff to manage the program. 

Your support helps: Yosemite’s Human–Bear Management team has significantly decreased interactions between black bears and visitors during the past quarter-century. In the late 1900s, black bears had become a threat to visitor safety, frequently stealing food from campsites and cars and potentially injuring people in the process. Yosemite Conservancy and the National Park Service intervened in the 1990s to educate visitors on proper food storage, better manage park trash, enforce food-storage regulations, and employ new management techniques. This included technological advances with GPS bear tracking, the creation of KeepBearsWild.org for public engagement, and an upgraded bear-monitoring system to allow rangers to quickly respond to bears. 

In this new era of proactive bear management, this project will allow the bear team to focus more time and energy in expanding, upgrading, and maintaining past projects.  

This year: In 2025, this project will uplift human–bear management efforts in Yosemite by purchasing new GPS collars to continue tracking bears, updating the KeepBearsWild.org website, hiring two biological science technicians, and creating six new blogs to engage and educate the public. 

Project partners: Yosemite National Park and Wharton Media