Leadership
Bear Safety & More's founder, Kim Titchener has worked on wildlife conflict reduction programs with multiple government agencies, communities and industry for 20 years.
She lives in bear country, and in Alberta this can mean almost any area of the province, but Canmore is the place she calls home.
Kim came to the Canadian Rockies in the late 90’s; fell in love with the natural environment and community for its value of coexisting with wildlife. She then dedicated the next five years to studying environmental education, parks management and leadership at Lakehead University. Gaining field experience in Banff National Park monitoring bear activity and educating the public on bear safety.
Kim soon learned first-hand the challenges we face living with wildlife. Out of the misfortune of seeing so many bears die due to human interface, and the tragedy we deal with when interactions with bears go wrong, she was inspired to dedicate her career to helping communities and businesses learn to live smart with wildlife.
A Culture of Bear Safety
Since then she’s worked on bear conflict reduction programs with multiple government agencies, and spearheaded the creation and facilitation of WildSmart, a multi-stakeholder coalition established to reduce human wildlife conflict in the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country.
Building WildSmart into a nationally recognized conservation strategy and community model for reducing conflict between people and wildlife. Her experience in engaging others in social behaviour change to create a bear safety culture in communities and industry has led to speaking engagements throughout Canada and the U.S.
Bear Conflict Reduction Programs
Kim has also served as a board member for Alberta BearSmart, a public awareness program for people visiting, living or working in bear territory. This experience lead her to identify the need to develop and deliver bear safety training and wildlife conflict plans for industry and communities working and recreating in bear country.
Over the past 20 years Kim has delivered wildlife safety programs to over 65,000 people and worked with Fish and Wildlife officers to develop a training program to educate government personnel on teaching members of the public to use bear spray.