Bitterroot Bear Resource Council to host free film screening, panel discussion

The Bitterroot Bear Resource Council will be hosting a film screening and discussion with bear experts at the Hamilton Performing Arts Center on Thursday, March 12.

The event begins at 6 p.m. with an introduction by the filmmaker, Dusty Hulet, followed by a screening of the “Bears of Durango” film, and then an open discussion with a panel of bear experts at 7:15 p.m.

The event is free, with no pre-registration or tickets required, and is presented by the Bitterroot Bear Resource Committee, a local group of citizens working to reduce conflicts between people and wildlife in the Bitterroot Valley.

Panel discussion members include retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Chris Servheen, who led grizzly recovery efforts for the agency, and members of the local bear team for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, James Jonkel and Brandon Davis. They will be joined by Dr. Heather Johnson, lead wildlife researcher with the USGS Alaska Science Center.

The “Bears of Durango” film details the research and implications of a Colorado Parks and Wildlife research project aimed at better understanding and addressing increases in human-black bear conflicts.

Beginning in 2011, a team of wildlife researchers, led by Johnson, spent six years investigating the factors that drive human-bear conflicts and the effects of expanding human development on bear populations.

The film won a series of awards, and the research findings have impacted discussions on human-wildlife coexistence.

"If we want our native biodiversity here, if we want these large carnivores to be back on our landscapes, ultimately we're going to have to figure out, how do we coexist?” Johnson said. “How do we share a single landscape?”

The free event is at the Hamilton Performing Arts Center, located at Hamilton High School (327 Fairgrounds Road).