Want to find out about black bears and how to hike safe in bear country? Ever wonder how humans and black bears are alike? Curious how these woodland giants spend their days? Then join Vermont’s Fish and Wildlife’s black bear biologist, Forrest Hammond and naturalist-educator, Susie Spikol, from The Harris Center for Conservervation Education for this program on the bare facts about New England’s black bears.

Curriculum level: K-5 +

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Presenters:

Susie Spikol

Community Programs Director & Teacher-Naturalist, Harris Center for Conservation Education

Susie spent her youth exploring the wild edges of Brooklyn, NY and roving the rolling green hills of southern Vermont. After one statistics class, she abandoned her childhood dream of becoming a wolf scientist and decided that teaching children in the outdoors was just as exciting as working with a pack of wild canines.

After interning as an environmental educator with the Central Park Conservancy and several summer stints with the Massachusetts Audubon Society, she wandered upon the Harris Center in 1991 and — to our great benefit — has never left.

When she’s not catching frogs with preschoolers, tracking bobcats with middle schoolers, or hawkwatching with her own three children, Susie tucks away to time to write. You can find selections of her writing here and here.

E. Kim Delozier

Kim Delozier grew up working on his family’s farm in eastern Tennessee. He graduated from the University of Tennessee in Wildlife and Fisheries Science. He began his career with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1978 working as a wild boar hunter and later served as the Park’s Wildlife Biologist. During his 32-year career, Kim’s involvement primarily focused on nuisance black bear management, wild boar control, white-tailed deer management and reintroduction efforts for elk, river otters, and peregrine falcons. Kim retired from the NPS in 2010. For the following nine years, Kim worked for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation as a Conservation Program Manager focusing on elk restoration throughout the eastern US. For several years, he managed the elk hunting activities for the Escalante Ranch near Vernal, Utah. Currently, he works as a Program Manager for BearWild, a division of Appalachian Black Bear Rehabilitation and Release Center focusing on incorporating BearWise in Tennessee and surrounding states to minimize bear-human conflicts. For the past several years, Kim served as an instructor of “Chemical Immobilization of Wildlife” classes for Safe Capture International. He received the North Carolina Wildlife Conservationists of the Year Award and has co-authored two books, “Bear In The Back Seat I & II”. The first book is a Wall Street Journal Best-Seller. Kim has keen respect and appreciation for the outdoors and wildlife and feels extremely blessed they have been a major part of his life.

Thank you to BearVault for sponsoring this Ed-Venture!