The intrepid explorations of wildlife journalists and photographers captive the imagination and inspire many of us to consider an adventure of our own. Want to experience nature and wildlife up close, immerse yourself in the raw energy and amazing beauty of unspoilt lands?

For those National Geographic fans and creature seekers Vital Ground are hosting two tours to beautiful Knight Inlet, British Columbia in 2010. One of the premier viewing areas in North America for bears and other wildlife—all set amidst the dramatic snow-capped peaks of Canada’s rugged western coastline.

The eco-tour includes guided field trips with nature experts that are passionate about preservation and who are happy to pass on their knowledge for an ‘exciting educational experience’ you won’t forget.

Good for Grizzlies: best of all this tour benefits the bears as proceeds are put towards the preservation efforts of Vital Ground, learn more here.

Knight Inlet Lodge, a founding member of the Commercial Bear Viewing Association of British Columbia, will provide accommodations.

The lodge is unique in that it is a floating complex located in Knight Inlet’s Glendale Cove. The remote location means that beautiful scenery and spectacular wildlife viewing are right outside your door.

Learn about itineraries, view photos, read past participant reviews, watch a promotional video, and secure your reservation online now by clicking below!

Spring trip: May 15-21, 2010
Fall trip: October 13-17, 2010

Our trips sell out very quickly, so we encourage you to book today online or phone us directly at 406-549-8650.

Watch a new Wild Bear Adventure promotional video on YouTube here.
Watch a video provided by Knight Inlet Lodge here.
Read accounts from previous Wild Bear Adventures here.

Expanding passages of preservation through responsible land management and easement acquisition secures habitat for the Bears of Bismark!

The Vital Ground Foundation announced today that it has acquired 57 acres of crucial grizzly bear habitat at North Idaho’s Bismark Meadows.

Located just west of Priest Lake, Bismark Meadows is an 1,100-acre complex of meadows and wetlands that features a dramatic array of rare flora and fauna.

It supports several endangered plant species and provides habitat for moose, elk, deer, black bear, wolves, lynx, westslope cutthroat trout, and eagles, as well as the threatened Selkirk Mountains grizzly population. The project area lies within the Selkirk Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone as delineated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The project protects nearly one quarter mile of Reeder Creek and complements two other projects completed by the organization in 2005 and 2008. The transaction was structured as a bargain sale, with the seller donating a significant portion of the parcel’s value. Vital Ground’s three projects permanently protect more than 160 acres of high value seasonal habitat for grizzlies and other wildlife in an area experiencing mounting development pressures. Efforts at Bismark Meadows fall under the organization’s Selkirk Grizzly Bear Habitat Conservation Initiative, which is designed to help bolster the struggling Selkirk grizzly population by collaborating with private landowners to secure conservation easements and strategic habitat acquisitions.

Research by state and federal agencies indicates that only 50-60 grizzlies persist in the entire 2,200 square mile Selkirk Mountain Ecosystem, which includes portions of northern Idaho, northeastern Washington, and southern British Columbia. Significantly, a senior conservation officer with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game suggests that at least four and as many as eight Selkirk grizzlies have been using Bismark Meadows for foraging habitat during recent spring seasons, including a sow with two cubs and a large boar that were observed in 2009.

“The greatest threat to wildlife today is human intrusion into their habitat,” states Gary Wolfe, Vital Ground’s executive director. “Our conservation projects in Bismark Meadows provide an increasingly rare wild refuge for imperiled animals and plants in a growing sea of development.”

As the surrounding Selkirk Mountains are often snowbound until early June, grizzlies must seek food in lower elevations when they emerge from hibernation. “This makes the meadowlands vitally important for the bears,” Wolfe says. “Without continued access to these and other low elevation food sources in spring and again in autumn, the Selkirk population may fail.”

Vital Ground’s recent project was partially funded by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation via the Northwest Wildlife Conservation Initiative. NWCI was formed in response to a $7 million, three-year matching grant to The Nature Conservancy from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to protect critical lands in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Additional support was provided by the Richard K. & Shirley S. Hemingway Foundation, First Interstate Bank, First Interstate BancSystem Foundation, and numerous individual donors.

Since 2008 Vital Ground’s work in the Selkirk region has been funded in part by a grant from the Canmore, Alberta-based Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y). Through its partnership with Y2Y, Vital Ground is contributing to the Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy, an international effort designed to help strengthen ecosystem connectivity so that grizzlies in the Idaho Panhandle and northwestern Montana can move about safely and intermingle with the more robust populations in Canada.

Vital Ground is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working to protect and restore North America’s grizzly bear populations by conserving wildlife habitat. Operating as a land trust, the organization cooperates with private landowners, local communities, state and federal agencies, and other NGOs to protect wildlife habitat resources throughout the northern Rockies.

Since its founding in 1990, Vital Ground has helped to protect and enhance more than 604,000 acres of habitat crucial to grizzly and other wildlife in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska, and British Columbia. For more information, phone 406-549-8650 or visit the website.

If you would like to make a contribution toward future Bismark Meadows projects, click here!

Real life ‘Grizzly Adams’ Doug Seus is more than a brother to the bears he is also their custodian, supporting and encouraging efforts to preserve Vital Ground essential to the survival of the Great Grizzly!

Acting as animal ambassadors both Doug and Lynn Seus (world renowned wildlife trainer’s) pledging an incredible $50,000 towards Vital Grounds $2 million ‘Strength of Connections Campaign’.

In addition Doug the Big Bear Lover that he is, issued his own challenge: indicating that if all Vital Ground supporters would rally and make their own contributions totaling $50,000 by year-end 2009 he and Lynne would gift Vital Ground an additional $50,000!

Show your support and send a big bear hug to our grizzly friends by making your own special, tax-deductible contribution toward the Seus Challenge today!

Spread the word we want to put an additional $50,000 into action protecting key habitat and landscape linkages upon which grizzlies and many other wild creatures depend.

All support is greatly appreciated and by acting as guardians for the great grizzly you will undoubtedly inspire others to do the same.

Click here to go the special donation page.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ordered the Obama administration to reverse a 2007 decision to remove Yellowstone grizzly bears from the threatened species list.

Click here to read full story.

Your voice is critical to protecting grizzly bears! Help send the message to safeguard our bears by signing the “Protect Grizzly Bears petition” posted by the Sierra Club.

Visit Vital Ground’s Bear Mart and dedicate your next workout drink to wildlife!

An attractive 20 oz eco-friendly aluminum sports bottle comes with a screw-on lid and a silver carabiner.

Made of high quality materials for high altitude mountaineers!

This cobalt blue beauty proudly displays the Vital Ground logo letting everyone know you are an athlete who cares about performance and the planet!

Price: $13.99

I am excited to announce a tremendous conservation opportunity and the launch of Vital Ground’s new Strength of Connections Campaign. This will be Vital Ground’s largest, most ambitious conservation fund raising effort since its founding in 1990. The $2 million campaign will run from now through our 20th anniversary year of 2010.

As we embark on this momentous challenge, I am pleased to report that we have already secured contributions or pledges of nearly $430,000, or close to 22% of our campaign goal. This includes a very generous pledge of support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

This provisional grant up to $196,000 via the Northwest Wildlife Conservation Initiative is specifically to help us secure additional grizzly bear habitat at one of Vital Ground’s premier project areas, Bismark Meadows, located in the Selkirk Mountains of northern Idaho. The grant requires a 5:1 match and must be met by October 2010.

Vital Ground has already acquired two critical parcels of grizzly bear spring habitat in Bismark Meadows. We have a third parcel under option agreement and a fourth is actively for sale. Your contribution today will help Vital Ground bring these two additional properties under conservation ownership, and allow us to continue working to protect other vitally important core habitat and linkages in Grizzly Country.

The online brochure located here describes how the Vital Ground’s Strength of Connections Campaign will address the issue of habitat fragmentation in the northern Rockies head-on by permanently protecting crucial habitat on private lands for the benefit of grizzly bears and other wildlife.

Please help us respond to this urgent conservation challenge and matching grant opportunity by making a secure online donation today.

Thank you!

Endangered Species Day is Friday May 15, 2009.

Endangered Species Day is a great opportunity for people young and old to learn about wildlife, birds, fish and plants in your area and the everyday actions that you can take to help protect our nation’s disappearing wildlife and last remaining wild lands. With more than 1,800 species now listed as threatened and endangered—including the grizzly bear—and thousands more threatened with extinction unless they receive Endangered Species Act protections, all public education efforts are extremely valuable.

Help celebrate Endangered Species Day by learning about endangered species in your area, providing habitat for wildlife in your backyard, visiting your local zoo, aquarium or endangered species habitat.

Vital Ground invite’s you to be an integral part of their wildlife and habitat conservation endeavors and celebrate in a universal dedication to protecting endangered species by making a special contribution.

Special Endangered Species Day Contribution

Thank you!

Our land is sacred and every creature play’s a vital role to the prosperity of all. In this unity of enduring existence we find a common goal to protect & preserve our Wild Heritage. Wildlife Warriors is a Bare Essentials Initiative to support the ingenious, imaginative and self initiated ideas of anyone wanting to raise funds and awareness for wildlife.

Let your heart and voice shine through in a unique way that represents you- perhaps you are an athlete who could seek sponsorship to save a species or an artist who could host an auction for animals?

However you wish to help, Bare Essentials is here to support all Wildlife Warriors in their pursuit of passion and purpose!

This year has been exceptional for Bare Essentials launching in March to a great response from dedicated readers passionate about a life of action. Adventurous soles who invest time exploring the world of natural beauty outside and looking for ways to help preserve it.

Not unlike the legendary Lara Croft Tomb Raider our readers are out to save the world one action at a time with Bare Essentials as their resource for knowledge and inspiration!

To ensure Commitment to Purpose and above all Action, Bare Essentials believes in leading by example and in 2008 set about raising funds and awareness for wildlife, this is B.E.’s work with wildlife review:

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