“Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s first full year as a BearWise member has been incredibly helpful to both partners and staff. Having pre-approved, standardized language for both residents and visitors has relieved staff time from creating new resources, often duplicating efforts across offices. Additionally, it’s allowed us to easily partner with local governments, such as the City of Aspen, to collaborate quickly on messaging and unique communication tactics. BearWise provides a trusted, neutral source that the agency can point to to validate our messages about why it’s so important for people to help prevent human-bear interactions. Finally, it allows schools, HOAs, rental property managers, and more to easily order and provide materials that are clear and easy to use while carrying the endorsement of Colorado Parks and Wildlife as well as most other state agencies.”

Rebecca Ferrell, Branding and Communications Section Manager
Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Information and Education Branch

“BearWise® has been an invaluable resource for us. It is a turnkey, full communications program for how to coexist with bears. Its nominal cost is tremendously outweighed by the benefits. It has completely overhauled our human-bear conflict communications materials. We’d need at least 2 full-time staff on bear information to create just a fraction of the materials available to our staff. It has fundamentally changed how our staff interact with the public, providing consistency in responses with sound, biologist-vetted information. It dovetails well with those states that already have human-bear conflict information, as well as, with states just dipping their toes into the bear communications arena.”

Andrew N. Tri, CWB®, Ph.D., Bear Project Leader
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

BearWise has changed our human-bear conflict messaging for the better in the following ways:

• We have completely revamped our entire messaging campaign in state parks to use BearWise.
• We have rolled BearWise materials into our human-bear conflict guidelines so that the same clear and consistent information about bears is relayed to people calling our wildlife office and conservation officers.
• We launched a new media campaign (both traditional and social media) to leverage BearWise information and the BearWise basics in our outreach and educational materials.
• We have purchased materials at the member discounted rate and outfitted every area wildlife office with banners, educational materials, stickers, etc. for local outreach, county fairs, the state fair, and trade/sport shows.
• We work with local governments to use BearWise messaging in their own social media alerts to provide timely tips to keep bears wild and people safe when a bear shows up in an unexpected area.
• Every contact with traditional media is met with the BearWise Basics and the Communication Guide. This helps introduce the media to BearWise and ensures that the messaging and branding remain consistent.
• BearWise flyers and content is now the main tool for educating the public with complaints regarding human-bear conflicts for DNR staff (enforcement, parks, information, and wildlife departments).

“BearWise® is an amazing resource for TPWD. We always use their materials and messaging, and direct people to their webpage during relevant events and in bear-related conversations with members of the public. Our state dues more than pay for themselves through the quality and quantity of materials we receive that we would otherwise be unable to produce on our own. It allows us to focus our time on communicating with the public and increases our ability to do so effectively. We need BearWise® to help teach people how to coexist with bears; there simply is no substitute for all that they provide.” 

Dana Karelus, Ph.D., State Mammal Specialist, Nongame & Rare Species Program
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department