By Joy Collier, Porterville, California
Bear in Sequoia ~ Joy Collier, California
When I first started painting in Sequoia National Park my friend Holly and I camped for a week and painted. It was delightful but it made it abundantly clear the purpose of the Bear Boxes in the campsites.
Every night after we had retired you could hear the bears banging around at the broken bear box in the campsite adjoining ours and every morning we would emerge to a campsite littered with trash, chip bags and all kinds of junk food wrappers, etc. which are not good for the bears, but do encourage them to keep coming and looking for more treats.
I have been wanting to donate money to help maintain
these bear boxes. It keeps peoples food safe, it discourages the bears from visiting because the boxes are designed with a latch that they cannot open with their paws but as we all know the funds for the parks is limited…. Soooo…. if you purchase any of my Sequoia Paintings or prints, I will donate at least 10%, maybe more… to the Sequoia Parks Conservency (The Non-Profit Partner to the National Park Service in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks) . Thank You! Joy
Learn more about the bears here: https://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/bears.htm