We’re into the season when our main thoughts are about the upcoming bear hunt. The DNR commissioner refused to make it illegal to shoot radio-collared bears but is asking hunters not to shoot them. Will hunters respect his word? We hope so. In the next week, we will be putting up this sign asking for hunter cooperation.
The DNR’s press release asking hunters not to shoot radio-collared bears got coverage in at least 2 TV news broadcasts.
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/08/18/dnr-asks-bear-hunters-not-to-shoot-radio-collared-bears/
Lily, Hope, Faith, and the other GPSed bears are safe.
The discussion continues about using diversionary feeding as a non-lethal means of alleviating bear problems. Of course any mention of feeding bears is controversial and not likely to be immediately embraced by cautious officials. It’s something to be used experimentally in additional areas to learn where and how it can be most effective. It’s a tool to be applied on a case by case basis—not something to be rejected and not something to be embraced as a panacea without further study. The discussion continued in this article and the comments under it. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/cottagers-favour-feeding-hungry-bears-elsewhere-128060013.html?device=mobile&c=y .
So far today, your 50,892 votes for Soudan Underground Mine State Park http://m.livepositively.com/park_details.jsp?parkId=556 moved us 3,301 votes closer to 1st place and 22,422 votes farther ahead of 3rd place. Way to go.
The power and passion of Lily fans for supporting the area where the study bears live cannot go unnoticed. Last year, you registered over 1.6 million votes for Bear Head Lake State Park. This year you have already registered over 2 million votes for Soudan Underground Mine State Park! You made winners of every voting contest you supported to help Ely causes. Now, we’re also looking for ways to help causes in Tower, Soudan, and Eagles Nest Township. So far, you’ve raised at least $197,500 for the area in addition to your contributions to the Wildlife Research Institute and the North American Bear Center. The radio-collared bears and their fans are truly a blessing to the region.
Thank you for your orders today for the 3-DVD set ($24.95) Lily and Hope: Memories of 2010 at http://www.bear.org/website/gift-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=855. We found the first DVD in this set useful for looking up any topic in the updates of 2010. We pop it in a computer, run a word search on any key word, and it finds the update and passage. For that reason, we’re going to add these to the Black Bear Boxes for use in schools. That DVD also includes the pictures and 92 videos that were in the updates. The other two DVD’s in the set include the 95 Den Cam videos (over 14 hours of video) that Linda Gibson posted, including over 2 hours of bonus videos that were not posted on YouTube. All 3 DVD's will play in computers worldwide, Disc 2 and 3 will play in US DVD players to be watched on your television and worldwide if played on a multi-regional DVD player.
Also, thank you for your contributions to the fundraiser that started today and ends tomorrow. You have already dropped the debt almost to $33,000.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center