Keeping Bears Wild is a documentary photography and film project on California's bears and the dedicated team of people working to keep them wild in Yosemite National Park.
Keeping Bears Wild is a photography and film project documenting the lives of California's black bears and the people working to keep them wild in Yosemite National Park. This ongoing project is focused on Yosemite National Park's human-bear management program but also covers human-bear conflict in other areas of the state such as the Lake Tahoe region. This is a unique opportunity to work embedded in a team of wildlife professionals, highlighting the tactics they use to significantly reduce human-bear incidents. This project is as much about human possibilities as it is about our relationship with bears.
Our Goals
The goal of this project is to help spread education, appreciation, and awareness in preventing human-bear conflict while encouraging viewers to help keep bears wild. By publishing a photo story, creating a short educational video, and producing a documentary film, we will be able to reach a wider audience of Yosemite's visitors and people around the world who coexist with bears.
A successful outcome of this project would be for an increased number of visitors to arrive in Yosemite National Park with bears already in mind. Ideally, more visitors and California residents will adopt strategies that help protect bears including properly storing items that attract bears, driving the speed limit to avoid wildlife-vehicle collisions, and knowing to give bears space during encounters to prevent habituation. The overall goal is to promote peaceful coexistence with bears and inspire local communities, park visitors, and people living with bears across California to realize that a wild bear is truly a wonderful thing.
"For many visitors, seeing a bear is the highlight of their trip. When they spend time watching bears, they become connected and increasingly committed to protecting them." — Rachel Mazur, Speaking of Bears
Who We Are
Jessica Hadley
Photographer, Director, & Co-Producer
Jessica Hadley is a Conservation Storyteller and Bear Specialist. As a storyteller, her work focuses on human-wildlife interactions mainly in National Parks. She started working with bears as a wildlife technician for the Yosemite Bear Management program in 2014 and has spent the last ten years working with wildlife in California and in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Working in National Parks inspired her to turn her lens towards the challenges park biologists face managing wildlife as park visitation increases. Her goal is to document how our actions, while visiting wild places, affect the lives of the animals we encounter. Jessica is a 2023 - 2024 & 2024 - 2025 Vital Impacts Environmental Photography Mentorship recipient. You can view Jessica's work here.
Tanner Haver
Cinematographer & Co-Producer
Tanner Haver began his career as a wildlife cinematographer in the Rocky Mountains, following the footsteps of his idol, wildlife filmmaking legend Bob Landis. He studied Biology and Geographic Information Systems at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Tanner has previously worked as a freelance wildlife cinematographer for Fin and Fur Films and specializes in documenting ungulate and large carnivore behavior. He is focused on capturing unique wildlife behaviors and stories that intimately connect audiences to the natural world. You can view Tanner's work here.
Yosemite's Bear Management Team
Initiated in 1975, Yosemite National Park’s Human-Bear Management Program has aimed to restore and preserve the natural ecology, distribution and behavior of Yosemite’s black bear population by eliminating the availability of human food sources and human activities that may modify bear behavior and providing for the safety of visitors and their property.
Yosemite has made significant strides in recent decades to keep bears wild and visitors safe. The full scope of the park’s human-bear management program, much of which has been supported by Yosemite Conservancy has reduced human-bear incidents (defined as a bear causing property damage, causing injury or “bluff charging”) by about 98 percent since 1998. This dramatic reduction in annual human-bear incidents in the park is due to much hard work by park staff including increasing and improving bear-resistant food storage lockers, containers, and bear-resistant trash receptacles; education and outreach programs; immediate response to and negative conditioning of bears in developed areas; and the evolution and use of bear monitoring and tracking technologies. Incidents have dropped from a record high of 1,584 in 1998 to fewer than 100 incidents annually in recent years. Learn more here.
A black bear investigates a car in Yosemite National Park. NPS Photo 1975.
Get in Touch
Contact us to discuss questions, inquires, or partnerships.