Nan Laney, who has worked as the Skagit and Whatcom County Field Coordinator located in Washington State for the past 3 years, has recently moved her working area south to include the northwest part of Snohomish County -- the North and South Fork Stillaguamish Valleys that include Darrington and Granite Falls. Whatcom County efforts have been passed off to Jim Davis, GBOP Co-Director, who is spearheading a focused Bear Smart program in the town of Glacier, which is surrounded by the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and excellent black bear habitat.
In September, about 15 eastern Skagit and Whatcom community members who are involved in the GBOP's educational efforts joined GBOP staff on our second field trip to the Woodland Park Zoo for a weekend bear awareness event. These trips are wildly popular and attendees often reflect enthusiastically about the zoo trip at GBOP Community Group meetings for months afterwards. Our last zoo trip was in the spring of 2005, and we are working collaboratively with the Woodland Park Zoo to plan a 3rd bear awareness event for the spring of 2007.
Submitted by Nan Laney, Skagit and Northern Snohomish Field Coordinator