Bear Necessities: Grizzly Bear Conservation and Management in the Kootenays Workshop
Michael Proctor will be discussing grizzly bear management and conservation in the Kootenays. He will take you into the world of grizzly bear research and lay out the conservation status of our region’s grizzly bears, how management has changed over the decades since he started in 1995, and what the future should look like, in his view. He will also talk about human bear conflicts, what has worked and what hasn’t, and the relationship and relevance to our communities and bear conservation.
Bio
M Proctor is a conservation-relevant research scientist who uses science to understand and inform conservation problems and solutions related to bears. I have focused on small isolated threatened populations requiring higher conservation attention, including population recovery, human-bear conflict reduction, community-based conservation, population management, population fragmentation and connectivity, habitat use, landscape genetics, demographics, and trend monitoring. I have spent my 20+ year career integrating and implementing conservation solutions to real world conservation problems including managing people as well as bears.
I started my bear career in the Revelstoke area in 1995 with the West Slope Bear Project. I currently run the Tran-border Grizzly Bear Project out of Kaslo BC. I research and work to improve management in the southern portions of the Selkirk and Purcell Mts.
I have been the Vice President of the International Bear Association, and served on their council for 9 years. I have been a scientific advisor for the IUCN Bear Specialist group, and a Co-chair of the North-South Asian Brown Bear Expert Team, and serve as a member of the Human Bear Conflict Expert Team.
But in the end, I am just research biologist who likes to hike, canoe, play piano, and live in the Kootenays.
Workshops are $10 suggested donation or free for Bear Aware members.
Meet us in the Macpherson room at the Rec Centre.