WHAT ROLE DOES EDUCATION PLAY IN BLACK BEAR MANAGEMENT AND DAMAGE CONTROL?
Education is often described as integral to the understanding, management, and resolution of human-black bear impacts. However, “education” is not mere entertainment nor the satisfying of curiosity or impulse. To be effective, education must be a process which advances individual knowledge and so causes the individuals to inculcate the teachings into their own behaviors. The most crisply-presented and technically accurate presentations-as well as those most visually attractive-do little for bears unless the knowledge so presented is utilized by listeners who are later confronted with issues of bear conservation and management. Science can determine those practices and actions which affect bears and their habitats, but all stakeholders must be conjoined in the decision-making process which implements those practices and actions. “Cultural carrying capacity” (CCC) is that number of animals which can compatibly co-exist with a given human population. Science can provide population estimat
