Job announcement

I'm the Co-Director of the very successful North Cascades Grizzly Bear Outreach Project (GBOP) here in Washington State. The project brings accurate information about grizzly bear ecology, behavior and recovery to rural communities in the North Cascades. We have fewer than 20 grizzly bears remaining in this 10,000 ecosystem, so most people know very little about them. We're looking for an educator to join our team to represent GBOP along the I-90 corridor (Issaquah to Liberty), based out of North Bend. Click here for more information about this exciting opportunity. Photo courtesy of John Wright. John took this photograph of a brown/grizzly bear during one of my Alaskan bear viewing trips in 2005. Thank you John.

Join me in the Scottish Highlands!
I'll be escorting a group of 12 people to one of the wildest places in western Europe in June 2007. We developed this trip to combine a beautiful blend of Scottish wilderness and culture. Click here to find out more about the trip, and the incredible wildlife conservation plans for this magic part of the world. We hope you can join us!

REI Seattle presentation
I'll be giving a presentation about my bear work at Seattle REI on January 25th, 2007. Click here for more details.

BEARTREK, the movie, takes shape
As many of you know, wildlife cinematographer Joe Pontecorvo and I have been working on the development of a feature film and campaign about the bears of the world called BEARTREK. The plan to make BEARTREK a reality has come a long way over the last few months. Generous contributions from 30 private donors, one very significant financial committment from our friend John Taylor, and incredibly insightful guidance from Jim Lewis, Bob Yellowlees, and Chris Palmer (Executive Producer) has meant that filming will begin in 2007. But this bear conservation project still needs your help - click here to donate.

BEARTREK is an around-the-world adventure that follows my motorcycle trip to some of the planet's wildest corners. Some of the 5 or 6 locations we're currently considering include Alaska, Mongolia, Borneo, India, Peru, Spitsbergen, and Canada - places where incredible stories can be told - about bears, and about those people who've devoted their lives to studying them. It's also about the colorful human cultures that surround bear habitat too. Here, the journey becomes the story too.

BEARTREK is going to break the mold. First of all, it's a non-profit project - all for the benefit of conservation. In fact, in addition to the film production costs we're raising, we are also generating dollars for the bear conservation, research, and education projects that will be featured in the film. All profits will also be pumped right back into conservation.

It's a grand plan, and only the big screen can accommodate such an epic story! For more information, or to make a tax-deductible donation see our website at: www.BEARTREK.org or Click here for a 2 page (1.5mb) pdf about BEARTREK

For a quick account of how BEARTREK evolved, click here.

Thanks to all those who have supported this project!

A year of travel
It's been quite the year of travel for me due to some wonderful wildlife guiding opportunities I was asked to take. It started with Argentina, the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica in February, then came the yearly Spitsbergen trip to show people polar bears in the high arctic of Europe, followed by my Alaska brown bear expedition (http://www.insightwildlife.com/katmai.htm) - all incredibly successful trips.

In October I headed to Japan for a conference about bear research and management and an opportunity to meet with fellow bear biologists about BEARTREK - the movie we are working on about bears of the world (www.BEARTREK.org). By the way, for anyone interested in an incredible guided trip to Japan, see this link to my friend's website - he runs a first class operation to some of Japan's wildlife and cultural hotspots. Following the Japan conference, there were more BEARTREK planning meetings in Thailand where we finalized a plan of action for location shoots, and talked in detail about the exciting new conservation organization we'll be starting (under which BEARTREK will be managed).

And just last week I got home from Scotland where I was checking out plans to bring boar, moose, wolves, and ultimately bears, back to an enclosed section of the wild Scottish Highlands. I'm planning to take a small group of people there in June 2007 to experience the wilderness and culture of Scotland during what should be the trip of a lifetime - all from the comfort of a luxury Highland lodge (www.alladale.com)! I'll be posting information to my website about the trip soon.

Watch this space for more news of my activities and how you can help global wildlife conservation! Thanks for checking in. Remember, the Insight web address is: www.insightwildlife.com