Services:Bear Training
Basic Module
Ideal for recreationalists, the basic module of bear safety training is a half-day interactive classroom course that teaches participants how to avoid bear encounters, how to respond to bear encounters if you do have one, and the proper use of bear spray. With well-shot video illustrating the points, participants will leave this course with a better understanding of bear behavior, human-bear conflict prevention, and your own ability to react to potential encounters. A quick-reference field guide participants can keep is included.
Advanced Module
The advanced module is tailored for industry workers or recreationalists who want more comprehensive bear safety training. The advanced module contains everything the basic module teaches, with a practical component addition where participants practice responding to mock situations and fire inert cans of bear spray to practice discharging the spray at the proper moment during an encounter. A quick-reference field guide participants can keep is included.
Bear Shepherding Training
Drawing on nearly 3 decades of bear management, veteran bear biologist Carrie Hunt of the Wind River Bear Institute pioneered the use Bear Shepherding, a human-bear conflict mitigation tool that emphasizes teaching bears to avoid humans and human developments in ways that generic aversive conditioning programs do not accomplish. Cascade’s bear expert Lori Homstol worked with the Wind River Bear Institute for more than 10 years, and is offering training programs for agencies working with human-bear conflict. Participants will learn how to move bears out of developed areas such as communities and campgrounds without compromising human, bear or public safety; how to teach roadside bears to move away from vehicles to prevent habituation and food-conditioning; and when to use hard releases. We also provide indexes bear managers can use to prioritize which bears are most likely to benefit from Bear Shepherding.
