Join Felicia Ortner, a Connecticut Master Wildlife Conservationist and bear enthusiast, as she provides education about bears and helps dispel misunderstandings.  Ortner, who has been involved in bear research in Connecticut for 25 years, will describe the resurgence of this remarkable survivor that once was extinct in the state, and is now rapidly increasing, numbering in the hundreds.

In the mid 1990s, Ortner turned her passion for learning about bears into a passion for teaching about them. Since 2008, she has presented bear education programs on behalf of the CTDEEP’s Master Wildlife Conservation program, and has logged over 310 outreach education hours, connecting with over 5,800 people in more than 190 programs in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.  With the populations of black bear increasing through New England and New York State, Ortner hopes “through outreach and education that these magnificent creatures will become better understood, we will learn to respect them instead of fear them and a strategy of coexistence with humans and bears is in the future.”  

The views and opinions expressed are those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Woodbury Public Library.