We’re at the International Bear Conference in Ottawa Ontario, and are making last minute preparations for the talk we’ll give as part of the Feeding Panel we were asked to participate in Friday morning at 8:50 AM. We met a couple Lily Fans here! We’re hearing some interesting talks and making new contacts—a great opportunity for networking.
News from the home front. The picture tells the story! Jason was getting the parking lot ready for striping in preparation for the Lilypad Picnic (striping was long overdue), when he snapped the picture.
Jason will be leaving us for greener pastures in mid-August. He has received a full scholarship to return to college and expand his prodigious talents as a computer information technologist. Right now, we are using his talents along that line to organize and summarize the den-watch data from this past winter before he leaves. We hope he will use his expanded talents in the future to work with us on similar projects. He has also been a lot of help on the den cam last winter, as you know, and in keeping the batteries fresh in the GPS units on the bears. We wish him well, and you can wish him well at the Lilypad Picnic.
We see that you have been voting like gangbusters! Over 367,000 votes for Soudan Underground Mine State Park! We don’t know where Oak Park came from. Out of nowhere, they suddenly have nearly 304,000 votes. They collected over 50,000 votes in 7 hours to scare us. This isn’t going to be an easy one! To vote, go to http://www.livepositively.com/#/americasparks/leaderboard and vote over and over.
We’re following the GPSed bears here, and they are all safe (Lily, June, Juliet, Braveheart, Dot, and Donna), but we are anxious to get back and see how June’s eye is coming.
We are also looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the Lilypad Picnic brunch at Grand Ely Lodge Sunday morning and seeing Lilypadders who couldn’t get in the brunch outside afterward.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center