If you are aware or suspect poaching or feeding of Black Bears, call the Georgia DNR Call the Ranger Hotline at 1-800-241-4113 (or *DNR for AT&T Mobility Customers) seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Black Bear Roadkill. Also, report Black Bear roadkill to your local Sheriff’s Department. If the road-kill is on the road, report it on the Emergency number due to the fact it poses an immediate traffic hazard. If the road-kill is out of the road, report it on the Non-Emergency number. Reporting roadkill helps the Georgia DNR track and assess the Black Bear population and allows them to factor those numbers into the overall population management model.
Appalachia Georgia Friends of the Bears represents and speaks for a creation that cannot speak for themselves, Ursus Americanus, the American Black Bear! We intend to influence decisions to reduce Human-Black Bear conflict across the government, public, and private sphere by leveraging public policy, laws, and budgets via proactive education, media campaigns, public speaking, direct appeal, and research.
Our organization is partisan politics-free and wish to remain so. Everyone has personal and political values and beliefs, however, we have to work with other people, institutions, legislators, and businesses that may or may not hold the same values that we may personally hold. The battle for the Black Bears will be challenging enough without someone adding an incendiary topic into the mix. When speaking with others in person or in correspondence, we ask you to be polite, courteous, concise, and articulate.
We will provide “Talking Points” when it comes to interacting with the city, county, and state officials. These talking points will be based on facts, observations, and political realities. We appreciate public support, however, when it comes to speaking for the Appalachia Georgia Friends of the Bears, the Founder is the spokesperson for position and policy for the organization, period. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
The foremost strategic message that we will always present are the “Be BearWise” Basic rules:
Because of the number of Georgia Municipalities, Counties, and Federal agencies and because of the frequency of turnover, contact with them in regards to Black Bears will be handled on a case-by-case basis and points of contact will be identified when required.
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