Grant promotes bear safety

Friends of the Smokies and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy continued their partnership to assist Great Smoky Mountains National Park with proactive bear management this year. A grant awarded $4,000 to support bear monitoring at campsites and shelters along the Smokies stretch of the Appalachian Trail.

Biologists estimate there are more than 1,500 black bears in the park. This equals a population density of about two bears per every square mile. Since 2006, over 60 percent of shelters along the Appalachian Trail in the Smokies have experienced some form of human-bear conflict annually. The installation and maintenance of food storage cables, in combination with warning signage, closures and visitor education, enables the National Park Service to optimize bear management and keep wildlife wild.

This grant is funded by the ATC’s specialty license plate sales in North Carolina. Funds are used to purchase materials to repair food storage cables at shelters and campsites along the Appalachian Trail. The grant also supports seasonal staff and two wildlife interns who assist with food-storage cable repairs, as well as other bear management and monitoring.

Thanks in part to this ATC funding, every backcountry campsite in the park has food storage cables, creating a safer environment for bears and hikers alike.  

The Appalachian Trail runs for more than 71 miles through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, entering the park from the south at Fontana Dam and exiting in the northeast at Davenport Gap. More than 19,000 people have thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in its entirety from Georgia to Maine, with many more completing the Smokies section along the North Carolina-Tennessee border. 

Friends of the Smokies is an official nonprofit partner of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and has raised more than $63 million to support critical park programs and maintain the Smokies as a crown jewel of the National Park Service.