Learning the "Bear" Essentials

There is no other festival like it in Florida and no other festival focuses more on one specific species of Florida wildlife. It's the Florida Black Bear Festival held annually in Umatilla. This year's event will be held Saturday, October 7, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Cadwell Park, located at 4 Cassady Street.

According to a press release by Lake County, Sherre Dabanian, festival coordinator was quoted as saying, "This year's festival is really going to concentrate on living safely in bear country. That's because of the number of encounters that again have increased significantly because of the growth of the human population in Central Florida. We have so many people that have moved to Lake County from other regions that have no previous experience of living with larger wildlife."

Although the primary focus of this free event is to educate festival-goers of the Florida Black Bear, it is a framily friendly occasion with a complete slate of fun activities. Those activities include live music and children's acitivities — bear track casting, finger painting, rock climbing wall, bungee jumping and live animal encounters. Guided field trips into the Ocala National Forest will also be offered at 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. In fact, these trips are so popular that people are turned away every year, so sign up early.

For more information call 407-323-1298 or visit www.floridablackbearfest.org.

^{Photo ©2002 JoAnn Vallee. Used by permission.}