Bear Fair teaches Seeley Elementary students how to be good neighbors

Danielle Oyler has worked across Montana teaching kids and adults about living in bear country in her role as the wildlife stewardship outreach specialist with Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks.

In front of a group of Seeley Lake Elementary School third graders at the Bear Fair, she said students in Seeley Lake have seen more bears on average than any other students at schools across the state that she's talked to. The next closest school is Lincoln.

"There's a very good chance you're going to see bears again and you want to know what to do if you encounter them," Oyler said as students stroked the bear pelt laid across the table in front of her.

Oyler was one of several speakers at the Seeley Lake Elementary School Bear Fair. Others included Jamie Jonkel, infamous Missoula bear specialist also with FWP, Jack Rich from Rich's Montana Guest Ranch and representatives from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Swan Valley Connections, the Blackfoot Challenge and the Clearwater Valley Bear Smart Working Group.

The Bear Fair is meant to teach students about the realities of living in an area with a high concentration of bears. Seeley Lake is home to both grizzly and black bears and lies within the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem where about 1,000 grizzlies live, according to the Vital Ground Foundation, a conservation organization focused on grizzly habitat.

At different stations set up around the pond at the Lions Club Park, students learned how to tell the difference between a black bear and a grizzly bear, were told about the importance of bear spray and the best ways to use it, heard tips on staying safe camping or hiking around Seeley Lake, saw a map of the movements of different radio-collared bears and considered how to be a good neighbor to more than just people.

"Seeley Lake is right in the middle of a lot of wild country and bears are all over, and in order to keep both people and bears safe and everybody able to coexist and live in the same area, we think it's important for kids to learn about how to do that well," Elaine Caton, education and bird program coordinator with the Blackfoot Challenge, said.

Rebecca Reeves, fish and wildlife biologist with USFWS, said she jokes that she became a biologist so she could hide in the woods and study wildlife, but ultimately learned how much people were involved with the work. It ends up being so much more important to work with people and know your neighbors, she said. Having something like the Bear Fair helps kids get a handle on the topics of safety and education when they're young, Reeves said, and it can create early community messengers.

"Kids can help model that behavior, just like parents model behavior for their kids. It's a two way learning street," Reeves said.

Finishing up an art project with Co Carew, professor at Salish Kootenai College and the University of Montana with a focus on social work and art therapy, Carew asked her group of students what they learned at the fair.

"To be a good neighbor," was the response from one of the youngest gathered at the Lions Park.