Yosemite National Park is working to keep its black bears and visitors safe. Historically, the park’s bear population was used as a tourist attraction with garbage filled feeding pits where visitors could get an up close view of a real live bear. It was very popular, but when the pits were closed, the bears learned they could find the human food in cars and campsites. This caused serious human-wildlife conflicts in the park. Today the effects still linger, but a new program, KeepBearsWild.org has been launched to help humans and bears avoid any conflicts. Sonia Aronson and her colleagues at the Media Enterprise Alliance School report on the successes and impact of the park’s new program.

Produced by Sonia Aronson, Sarah Chow, Jamahl Edwards and Xavier Rivera, students at the Media Enterprise Alliance in Oakland, CA. Mentor support provided by Faviola Leyva and Jake Schoneker.

Special thanks to Yosemite National Park for the opportunity to explore the natural, cultural and educational resources being preserved for visitors from around the country and world by the park and its rangers.

Visit Student Reporting Labs on YouTube for closed captioning.