Earth Day! - UPDATE April 22, 2025

June and Lily
When I think about Lily and June and what they started for bears, I think of all who share hearts for bears. It makes me want to say once again “thank you for all you do.” What has flowed from Lily, her den cams, and people who then wanted the best for bears, their habitat, coexistence, and the world made me want to celebrate what so many have done by posting this picture of 6-year-old June locked in love with 3-month-old Lily on April 22, 2007, the 37th Earth Day when there was so much ahead of them. What Lily did by allowing a den cam in her den showed the world what black bears are really like, how tenderly they care for cubs, and how they can steal the hearts of people worldwide and start a movement for bears that still echoes today through all of us, through others who have learned, and through efforts by the BBC to educate with documentaries about the bears we know. There is so much to be grateful for and so much we can still do.
Thank you for all you’ve done and are doing.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center