Training

KBSIC offers Bear Awareness courses for the general public and recreationists as well as Bear Safety Training courses for people working in bear country. The course are typically one half day but can be designed for a particular groups needs.

Our instructors have many years of experience in the field working with both black ands grizzly bears. They also have a long history of teaching the public, industry and government agency professionals bear related training courses. We have developed a unique, hands on approach to learning about how to minimize risk while working, recreating or living in bear country.

Karen Oldershaw, B.Sc., M.E.Des.

Karen has worked in black and grizzly bear range for over 15 years.  Her field experience with bears includes grizzly bear habitat use studies in Glacier National Park (B.C.), bear hazard assessments in Nahanni National Park Reserve (NWT) and Bragg Creek (AB), and bear habitat evaluations for the Eastern Slopes Grizzly Bear Project.  In 2001, she completed a Masters degree on the influence of timber harvest activities on grizzly bears in Kananaskis Country, Alberta. 

Karen is committed to bear conservation and advocates for greater public awareness of the appropriate safety measures to reduce bear conflict risk.  Over the last 7 years, Karen has prepared and presented bear awareness and safety programs for the University of Calgary and the City of Calgary’s Outdoor Pursuits Programs.  She has also worked with clients in the oil and gas industry preparing bear safety training materials for field employees as well as recommendations for bear-safe industrial camps.  As the Bragg Creek BearSmart Program Coordinator, she also works with fellow residents to build greater bear awareness and to reduce bear-human conflicts in their community.

Jay Honeyman M. Sc.

Jay has been teaching bear safety and awareness courses for over twenty years, within government, the private sector and to the general public. He has been the Executive Director of KBSIC since its inception in 2003. He worked for over 15 years as a Park Ranger/ Conservation Officer in the Kananaskis District, many of those years as the Resource Management Coordinator responsible for coordinating bear management activities in that area. Since 2000, Jay has worked as a bear conflict specialist for the Wind River Bear Institute (WRBI), assisting government agencies with their bear conflict problems in various jurisdictions throughout Canada and the United States. He has been the Program leader for WRBI in southern Alberta since 2002. This work includes carrying out aversive conditioning activities on radio-collared grizzly bears in the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country west of Calgary, Alberta. He has spent the last 5 years capturing and radio collaring grizzly bears with the Foothills Model Forest whose research includes assessing bear populations and evaluating bear responses to human activities and habitat conditions within the province of Alberta. Jay completed the first Bear Hazard Assessment for the Bow Valley (Ab) in 2006, an attempt to formally identify and provide recommendations for bear conflict in the Bow Valley. He also presently sits on the Communications Committee of Bow Valley Wildsmart, a community based organization whose aim is to reduce wildlife conflict through education. He completed his MSc at Royal Roads University in 2008 evaluating the effectiveness of aversive conditioning on grizzly bears in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Alberta.