Description

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The history, compiled from interviews with over 100 individuals, of how Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks, all in California's Sierra Nevada, created a human-bear problem so bad that there were eventually over 2,000 incidents in a single year. Speaking of Bears is for bear lovers, national park buffs, historians, wildlife managers, biologists, policy and grant-makers, and anyone who wants to know the who, what, where, when, and why of what once was a serious human-bear problem, and the path these parks took to correct it.

About the Author

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Rachel Mazur, an expert in bear biology and management, ran the bear management program in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks for nine years. Rachel has also worked in many other national parks including Denali, Redwood, Yosemite, and North Cascades. She earned her Ph.D. from U.C. Davis studying black bear ecology, and also holds an M.S. in forest biology from the S.U.N.Y. College of Forestry and an M.P.A in public administration from Syracuse University. Besides publishing several scientific and popular articles on bears, she is the author of a best-selling children's book called, If You Were a Bear, from which all proceeds go to environmental education. Rachel currently lives in El Portal, California with her husband, John, and her two cubs, Max and Wren.