President's Message
It is pitch black, a no moon night as I stand eight-feet from a 350-pound black bear illuminated in the beam of my headlamp. She is munching a two day pack of food we had hanging between two trees high in the California Sierra’s. She just snarls at me as I consider what to do. Her 3-inch claws and 2-inch teeth reveal to me the obvious answer. “Enjoy your dinner dear bear,” I say to her in a calm voice. “No need to say thanks.”
During the 20 years I spent rock climbing, ice climbing and backpacking in the Sierra’s, I was only successfully raided twice by bears. I usually hung our food on rock walls but occasionally I had to use trees. When tree hanging, I would split our food supplies into different packages so the smart little critters would not get it all in one raid. My attitude was if bears were going to steal from me, the furry thieves would have to work for it.
As the bears became smarter, more determined and daring, the National Park and Forest Service mandated bear proof containers, either fixed boxes or back-packable units. The fixed units were installed in larger camping areas such as lakes, streams, trailheads and junctions. This minimized the problem of bears obtaining human food. An unintended consequence, though, was that it impacted on how well the humans ate in the backcountry. We had more soup and really lightweight dried foods supplemented with occasional trout dinners. Not a bad tradeoff!
This bear container approach was the only one that would work all the time. The intellect and tenacity of a bear looking for human food is incredible. At one of our high climbing camps, a bear climbed a 5.7 crack over 30-feet to get at a food bag. The bear was not hurt and did retrieve a couple of days of food. I was completely amazed at the agility, power, fearlessness and intelligence of this bear. I would love to have climbed with her. She would have made a great belay partner with the weight she was carrying, if she was a human, of course.
Bears are some of the most interesting thieves that I have ever encountered. The more time I spend with bears, the more I enjoy them and understand them. This process started with them stealing from me and now I sit with, talk to and live with bears whenever possible. I have learned a great deal about them, their habitat, their personalities and proclivities and have realized we need bears as much as they need us.
This is why I started Bears Unlimited Inc. Through this non-profit organization, we seek to help people see how important bears are to our environment. We want to bring the lives of bears into the homes and consciousness of people throughout the US through stories based on our research, still images and video. Our expeditions will visit bears in all their varied habitats from the fearsome polar bear of the Arctic to the giant coastal brown bears of Katmai.
One of Bears Unlimited, Inc. main goals is to visit bears in the wild and learn about their native environment, their home. We want to visit the barren-ground brown bears in northern Alaska, Canada, and Yellowstone and see the differences that exist within those brown bear populations. We want to visit with rare Kermode blacks, which are actually white colored black bears. We want to visit the Glacier bear, a steel blue colored black bear that resides in the St. Elias range in Canada and Alaska. We want to explain bear behavioral traits so everyone from children to adults can understand bears and see them in a new light.
The second goal of Bears Unlimited Inc. is educating people about native bear populations. Our school programs are designed to bring bears into the classroom. Our bear host, Attu, is the polar bear character that researches and writes our educational children’s book series Attu’s Adventures. In addition to traveling to the National Parks to research each Park’s history and residents (the animals, of course), Attu will share his knowledge with elementary-aged school children. Though Attu’s 45-book series and his school programs, we hope to share our stories of nature and the environment with all children. Ultimately, we hope this knowledge will allows casual bear observers of all ages to safely enjoy seeing bears in the wild and gain a better understand their traits and habitats.
These are my goals for Bears Unlimited Inc. Bears are generally very cool animals and I enjoy hanging out with them. They are also incredibly violent and can be extremely aggressive. Our goal is to provide information that will keep both bears and humans safe so that these encounters are pleasant and enjoyable ones for everyone.
Mingo Morvin
President, Bears Unlimited Inc.