Donate Today >>Appalachian Bear Rescue (ABR) is a black bear rescue facility located just outside of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Townsend, Tennessee. ABR is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization that has been returning black bears back to the wild since 1996. Each year black bears from our national parks and surrounding areas are orphaned, injured, or in need of medical care. Thanks to Appalachian Bear Rescue, these bears are given a second chance at life in the wild.
As many of you know, the ABR Bear Facility is located on about 60 acres of wooded land in Townsend. Besides cubs who come to ABR for rehabilitation, plenty of other wildlife calls our land their home. We have all sorts of critters, big and small, that visit the property regularly. Here are some of the various visitors from just this past week that we’ve seen (or the camera sees😉)!
May 12, 2026 - Come Build a (mini) Cub Platform With the Curators!🐻🔨🪜
Enjoy this video of Curator Seth and Curator Katrina showing you their "arts and crafts" project from today! We are always brainstorming ways we can keep cubs busy and playing while they are indoors in our care! ... See MoreSee Less
Firstly, thank you all for being such incredible supporters of wildlife conservation and our black bears, and for sticking with us through this latest process. None of this is possible without you.
As Executive Director Greg explains in this video update , we are working hard behind the scenes and with our partners to move everything in the right direction and get back to what we do - giving cubs a second chance.
Crucial updates and details are on the horizon. So, while news is slow at the moment, we wanted to let y'all know that we've not slowed down our work - not one bit.
Here's to a bright future and another 30 years together! ... See MoreSee Less
What is almost as cool as humans sporting ABR merch?...
Your car sporting ABR merch!🚗
Back in 2017, we sold a front license plate with the ABR logo on it and we've brought them back for the summer! This slick license plate can "multiply the cool factor" of any vehicle. Whether you put it on a trusty ole farm truck, your weekend ride, or the family minivan, you can be sure your ride is looking sweet as you show off your support for Appalachian Bear Rescue! ALSO, the purchase of a license plate includes a weatherproof limited edition 30th Anniversary ABR logo sticker.
The past few days, curators have been working on assembling the observation tower for new Wild Enclosures 5 & 6. For those of you who have been following ABR for many years, you know that observation towers used to be critical to our operation to make sure all bears in our care were healthy and accounted for daily. Now that we have high quality camera systems around our facility, our observation towers are used less frequently. However, they still come in handy for curators (for example they have been used as high ground for curators with paintball guns to act as a failsafe against curious cubs if curators have to go into an occupied Wild Enclosure for an emergency repair)!
We eventually intend to have two or three cameras placed around WE 5 & 6, but for now, a few of our existing cameras can see into most of WE 6 and some of WE 5. This is where our new observation tower placed behind WE 5 will come in handy!
All of our other observation towers are open air structures made of wood with multiple visual barriers attached. They are great for observing bears, but they are also great homes for carpenter bees and giant hornet & wasp nests😅. They are also permanently affixed into the ground and the wood is subject to all of the joys of the moist East Tennessee weather! So for the new observation tower, Director Greg had the idea of trying out a "hunting blind"/deer stand instead of building a new structure. According to the instructions, this structure could be put together in three hours with the help of at least three people. Luckily, we put our best people on it and at least 6 hours later, over the span of a few days, curators are still putting the final touches on it (and they even read the instructions!)🥸. How many ABR curators does it take to put together a deer stand? Apparently more than three😉. Alas, we believe in them and eventually they will get it together (ha, get it?)! In their defense, Curator Tom was not around to give his input, so they were left to their own devices. The pros with this setup is that the stand can be moved around and even taken down if needed - well theoretically anyway. The tower also looks a bit like an AT-AT walker from Star Wars, which feels appropriate for May 4th (National Star Wars Day).
We also wanted to introduce you to the three newest members to the Volunteer Toy Brigade! We had a supporter come for our facility tours this past February and Curator Katrina mentioned how expensive and difficult to find Official Replacement Not a Polar Bears were. This supporter felt very strongly about the importance of NAPBs to ABR and generously gave us a donation specifically to get a few more in place of the NAPBs that retired last year. These newest NAPB seem excited to be of service to our future cubs (although this may be because we might have left out some specific details about what exactly their job entails🐻🤫).
Thanks for waiting patiently alongside us for the "green light". ... See MoreSee Less
With the much anticipated rain that came this past weekend, Curator Tom made sure that the other curators put the grass seed mix down in new Wild Enclosures 5 & 6 on Friday afternoon. We have been anxiously awaiting this moment, but had to be patient for rain during this unusually dry spring. With all of the work that has been done in these enclosures over the past year, they look a bit like moonscapes. Additionally, the soil at the Bear Facility is mostly clay based, so it will take some patience and nurturing to get these new Enclosures looking as lush as WE 1-4.
Curator Katrina was trusted with the task of seeding because when she first joined ABR in spring of 2024, she graduated Curator Tom's intensive School of Seeding (the curriculum mainly involves Curator Tom watching the student spread seed while yelling "faster" or "slower"). With her degree, she is permitted to seed without supervision😉. We also received a big load of cypress boards from our good ABR friend Michael, who generously brings this wood to us all the way from West Tennessee! This wood will be used to make the platforms in Wild Enclosures 5 & 6.
We are patiently waiting for our inspection as well as the results from the soil sample survey so we can get the green light to be officially licensed for cub care. In the meantime, we will make sure our facility is as ready it can possibly be for any future cubs that need our care (which includes watching the grass grow)! ... See MoreSee Less
April 21, 2026 - Protecting Beehives is Protecting Bears🐻🐝
As we move further into April, more and more bears emerge on the landscape here in East Tennessee. People who may have forgotten some of the BearWise basics over the winter sometimes receive a harsh reminder of all of the things black bears can get into if they are not properly bear "proofed".
This morning, Director Greg received a call from a community member who had a bear knock over their beehive early this morning. This beehive was put up less than a month ago by Mike and Melinda in the Douglas Dam area. Mike has done months and months of research into beekeeping as he heads into retirement and this beehive is the beginnings of his retirement hobby. Luckily Mike was able to find the queen bee and set his hive back up unharmed this morning, but he certainly learned his lesson! He and Melinda are new to this home and they are more than happy to do anything needed to protect both their bees and their chickens from resident black bears!
Director Greg and Curator Katrina were happy to head over to their property to get them set up with one of ABR's community "loaner" electric fence kits from our friends at Premier 1 Supplies. Whenever a bear gets into something yummy, the situation has to be remedied quickly because it is likely the same bear will come back again shortly, many times the following night! We know that most people have good intentions and want to protect bears as well as their own animals, but sometimes it can be hard to know where to start. This is why we started this electric fence kit "loaner" program! Each electric fence kit includes a 100ft roll of electric poultry netting, a solar powered electric fence charger, and the enthusiasm of an ABR staff member to set it all up for you (in this case, Mike set up the fence in his bee suit due to the many angry honey bees who had just had their home invaded)! With these kits, we have been able to quickly help folks who have had a bear "break-in" and help them in the in-between while they figure out a more permanent "bear resistant" solution. Since 2024, we have loaned these kits out to over a dozen people in the local area to help keep bears out of beehives, chicken coops, garages, dumpsters, gardens, etc. One part of ABR's mission is to educate folks on how they can coexist with black bears so we can protect both people and bears! These kits have allowed us to not only protect bears and human property but also help connect with community members who often spread the BearWise information we've imparted onto their neighbors!
We greatly appreciate community members like Melinda and Mike asking for our help! They knew they needed to find a quick solution to not only protect their bees, but also protect the bears in the area and we were happy to be of assistance! We also talked with them about steps they can take to make their chicken run more bear resistant. Taking proactive steps can literally save a bear's life. We are always happy to help our community protect bears (and humans)!
🐻For more information about making your beehive/chicken coop/home more BearWise, visit bearwise.org/
✨SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: ABR's Visitor Center and Store at Trillium Cove will be returning to summer hours next week! This means we are open Monday-Saturday from 10am-4pm ... See MoreSee Less
April 18, 2026: WBIR Highlights New Black Bear Legislation
Thank you again to our friends at WBIR Channel 10 for championing the ongoing story of Bill SB2597/HB2215, new legislation that makes feeding black bears in prohibited areas a misdemeanor.
As WBIR captions their evening news story, "The bill also allows TWRA's executive director to enter into agreements with local law enforcement to enforce wildlife management laws."
On Friday, reporter Lauryn Lovett reached out to ABR hoping to gain further insight on the bill. With ABR Executive Director Greg hard at work on our enclosures, Naturalist Communications Specialist Jon D. B. stepped in to make sure we could answer any questions & offer further insight.
Lovett interviewed multiple residents in downtown Gatlinburg, and we're thrilled to hear each of them not only highlighting their own BearWise and bear aware knowledge, but encouraging others to do the same.
Let's keep this conversation going - this all happens because you all care! And if you're with us in Tennessee Bear Country, please reach out to your local law enforcement agencies and municipalities to take advantage of this opportunity to make it illegal to feed bears in our cities, townships, and counties.
Thank you all for being the champions our black bears need 🐻
Last night we received our first real rainfall of April and the plants and animals seemed just excited about it as we were! We have been anxiously awaiting to seed our new Wild Enclosures 5 & 6, but without rain, seed doesn't do so well. Unfortunately this rainshower came upon us unexpectedly last night, so we will have to patiently wait for the next one to put seed down which will hopefully be sooner rather than later.
One of the other final tasks we completed this week was hanging all of the visual barriers on the bottom of the fencing of the new Wild Enclosures. We are using the same green construction cloth that we put on WE 1 & 2. Thank you all for donating those to us last year! These visual barriers help obstruct cubs' view of curators as they are throwing food over the fence or doing regular maintenance around the enclosures. As with anything we do at ABR, the less the cubs see of us humans, the better!
Curators are keeping their hands busy (with special thanks to Curator Tom 😉) as we wait for the soil sample results and then our inspection. We don't have an exact timeline on these things, but all of our partners are doing what they can to get us officially "cub-ready" as soon as possible. Each day we get closer!
In other exciting news, our limited edition 30th Anniversary mugs and soup bowls are in stock. They feature our 30th Anniversary logo with a forest green glaze! Grab yours today!
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May 14, 2026 - Wild Wildlife at ABR!
As many of you know, the ABR Bear Facility is located on about 60 acres of wooded land in Townsend. Besides cubs who come to ABR for rehabilitation, plenty of other wildlife calls our land their home. We have all sorts of critters, big and small, that visit the property regularly. Here are some of the various visitors from just this past week that we’ve seen (or the camera sees😉)!
#wildlife #blackbear #greatsmokymountains ... See MoreSee Less
26 CommentsComment on Facebook
May 12, 2026 - Come Build a (mini) Cub Platform With the Curators!🐻🔨🪜
Enjoy this video of Curator Seth and Curator Katrina showing you their "arts and crafts" project from today! We are always brainstorming ways we can keep cubs busy and playing while they are indoors in our care! ... See MoreSee Less
23 CommentsComment on Facebook
Friday Update from Executive Director Greg:
Firstly, thank you all for being such incredible supporters of wildlife conservation and our black bears, and for sticking with us through this latest process. None of this is possible without you.
As Executive Director Greg explains in this video update , we are working hard behind the scenes and with our partners to move everything in the right direction and get back to what we do - giving cubs a second chance.
Crucial updates and details are on the horizon. So, while news is slow at the moment, we wanted to let y'all know that we've not slowed down our work - not one bit.
Here's to a bright future and another 30 years together! ... See MoreSee Less
44 CommentsComment on Facebook
What is almost as cool as humans sporting ABR merch?...
Your car sporting ABR merch!🚗
Back in 2017, we sold a front license plate with the ABR logo on it and we've brought them back for the summer! This slick license plate can "multiply the cool factor" of any vehicle. Whether you put it on a trusty ole farm truck, your weekend ride, or the family minivan, you can be sure your ride is looking sweet as you show off your support for Appalachian Bear Rescue! ALSO, the purchase of a license plate includes a weatherproof limited edition 30th Anniversary ABR logo sticker.
We have limited stock, so order yours soon!
Grab yours HERE: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/license-plate-with-30th-anniversary-sticker ... See MoreSee Less
16 CommentsComment on Facebook
May 4, 2026 - May the 4th Be With You
The past few days, curators have been working on assembling the observation tower for new Wild Enclosures 5 & 6. For those of you who have been following ABR for many years, you know that observation towers used to be critical to our operation to make sure all bears in our care were healthy and accounted for daily. Now that we have high quality camera systems around our facility, our observation towers are used less frequently. However, they still come in handy for curators (for example they have been used as high ground for curators with paintball guns to act as a failsafe against curious cubs if curators have to go into an occupied Wild Enclosure for an emergency repair)!
We eventually intend to have two or three cameras placed around WE 5 & 6, but for now, a few of our existing cameras can see into most of WE 6 and some of WE 5. This is where our new observation tower placed behind WE 5 will come in handy!
All of our other observation towers are open air structures made of wood with multiple visual barriers attached. They are great for observing bears, but they are also great homes for carpenter bees and giant hornet & wasp nests😅. They are also permanently affixed into the ground and the wood is subject to all of the joys of the moist East Tennessee weather! So for the new observation tower, Director Greg had the idea of trying out a "hunting blind"/deer stand instead of building a new structure. According to the instructions, this structure could be put together in three hours with the help of at least three people. Luckily, we put our best people on it and at least 6 hours later, over the span of a few days, curators are still putting the final touches on it (and they even read the instructions!)🥸. How many ABR curators does it take to put together a deer stand? Apparently more than three😉. Alas, we believe in them and eventually they will get it together (ha, get it?)! In their defense, Curator Tom was not around to give his input, so they were left to their own devices. The pros with this setup is that the stand can be moved around and even taken down if needed - well theoretically anyway. The tower also looks a bit like an AT-AT walker from Star Wars, which feels appropriate for May 4th (National Star Wars Day).
We also wanted to introduce you to the three newest members to the Volunteer Toy Brigade! We had a supporter come for our facility tours this past February and Curator Katrina mentioned how expensive and difficult to find Official Replacement Not a Polar Bears were. This supporter felt very strongly about the importance of NAPBs to ABR and generously gave us a donation specifically to get a few more in place of the NAPBs that retired last year. These newest NAPB seem excited to be of service to our future cubs (although this may be because we might have left out some specific details about what exactly their job entails🐻🤫).
Thanks for waiting patiently alongside us for the "green light". ... See MoreSee Less
19 CommentsComment on Facebook
April 28, 2026 - Getting the Green Grass to Grow🌱
With the much anticipated rain that came this past weekend, Curator Tom made sure that the other curators put the grass seed mix down in new Wild Enclosures 5 & 6 on Friday afternoon. We have been anxiously awaiting this moment, but had to be patient for rain during this unusually dry spring. With all of the work that has been done in these enclosures over the past year, they look a bit like moonscapes. Additionally, the soil at the Bear Facility is mostly clay based, so it will take some patience and nurturing to get these new Enclosures looking as lush as WE 1-4.
Curator Katrina was trusted with the task of seeding because when she first joined ABR in spring of 2024, she graduated Curator Tom's intensive School of Seeding (the curriculum mainly involves Curator Tom watching the student spread seed while yelling "faster" or "slower"). With her degree, she is permitted to seed without supervision😉. We also received a big load of cypress boards from our good ABR friend Michael, who generously brings this wood to us all the way from West Tennessee! This wood will be used to make the platforms in Wild Enclosures 5 & 6.
We are patiently waiting for our inspection as well as the results from the soil sample survey so we can get the green light to be officially licensed for cub care. In the meantime, we will make sure our facility is as ready it can possibly be for any future cubs that need our care (which includes watching the grass grow)! ... See MoreSee Less
20 CommentsComment on Facebook
April 21, 2026 - Protecting Beehives is Protecting Bears🐻🐝
As we move further into April, more and more bears emerge on the landscape here in East Tennessee. People who may have forgotten some of the BearWise basics over the winter sometimes receive a harsh reminder of all of the things black bears can get into if they are not properly bear "proofed".
This morning, Director Greg received a call from a community member who had a bear knock over their beehive early this morning. This beehive was put up less than a month ago by Mike and Melinda in the Douglas Dam area. Mike has done months and months of research into beekeeping as he heads into retirement and this beehive is the beginnings of his retirement hobby. Luckily Mike was able to find the queen bee and set his hive back up unharmed this morning, but he certainly learned his lesson! He and Melinda are new to this home and they are more than happy to do anything needed to protect both their bees and their chickens from resident black bears!
Director Greg and Curator Katrina were happy to head over to their property to get them set up with one of ABR's community "loaner" electric fence kits from our friends at Premier 1 Supplies. Whenever a bear gets into something yummy, the situation has to be remedied quickly because it is likely the same bear will come back again shortly, many times the following night! We know that most people have good intentions and want to protect bears as well as their own animals, but sometimes it can be hard to know where to start. This is why we started this electric fence kit "loaner" program! Each electric fence kit includes a 100ft roll of electric poultry netting, a solar powered electric fence charger, and the enthusiasm of an ABR staff member to set it all up for you (in this case, Mike set up the fence in his bee suit due to the many angry honey bees who had just had their home invaded)! With these kits, we have been able to quickly help folks who have had a bear "break-in" and help them in the in-between while they figure out a more permanent "bear resistant" solution. Since 2024, we have loaned these kits out to over a dozen people in the local area to help keep bears out of beehives, chicken coops, garages, dumpsters, gardens, etc. One part of ABR's mission is to educate folks on how they can coexist with black bears so we can protect both people and bears! These kits have allowed us to not only protect bears and human property but also help connect with community members who often spread the BearWise information we've imparted onto their neighbors!
We greatly appreciate community members like Melinda and Mike asking for our help! They knew they needed to find a quick solution to not only protect their bees, but also protect the bears in the area and we were happy to be of assistance! We also talked with them about steps they can take to make their chicken run more bear resistant. Taking proactive steps can literally save a bear's life. We are always happy to help our community protect bears (and humans)!
🐻For more information about making your beehive/chicken coop/home more BearWise, visit bearwise.org/
✨SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: ABR's Visitor Center and Store at Trillium Cove will be returning to summer hours next week! This means we are open Monday-Saturday from 10am-4pm ... See MoreSee Less
21 CommentsComment on Facebook
April 18, 2026: WBIR Highlights New Black Bear Legislation
Thank you again to our friends at WBIR Channel 10 for championing the ongoing story of Bill SB2597/HB2215, new legislation that makes feeding black bears in prohibited areas a misdemeanor.
As WBIR captions their evening news story, "The bill also allows TWRA's executive director to enter into agreements with local law enforcement to enforce wildlife management laws."
On Friday, reporter Lauryn Lovett reached out to ABR hoping to gain further insight on the bill. With ABR Executive Director Greg hard at work on our enclosures, Naturalist Communications Specialist Jon D. B. stepped in to make sure we could answer any questions & offer further insight.
Lovett interviewed multiple residents in downtown Gatlinburg, and we're thrilled to hear each of them not only highlighting their own BearWise and bear aware knowledge, but encouraging others to do the same.
Let's keep this conversation going - this all happens because you all care! And if you're with us in Tennessee Bear Country, please reach out to your local law enforcement agencies and municipalities to take advantage of this opportunity to make it illegal to feed bears in our cities, townships, and counties.
Thank you all for being the champions our black bears need 🐻
... See MoreSee Less
14 CommentsComment on Facebook
April 17, 2026 - Happy Friday!
Last night we received our first real rainfall of April and the plants and animals seemed just excited about it as we were! We have been anxiously awaiting to seed our new Wild Enclosures 5 & 6, but without rain, seed doesn't do so well. Unfortunately this rainshower came upon us unexpectedly last night, so we will have to patiently wait for the next one to put seed down which will hopefully be sooner rather than later.
One of the other final tasks we completed this week was hanging all of the visual barriers on the bottom of the fencing of the new Wild Enclosures. We are using the same green construction cloth that we put on WE 1 & 2. Thank you all for donating those to us last year! These visual barriers help obstruct cubs' view of curators as they are throwing food over the fence or doing regular maintenance around the enclosures. As with anything we do at ABR, the less the cubs see of us humans, the better!
Curators are keeping their hands busy (with special thanks to Curator Tom 😉) as we wait for the soil sample results and then our inspection. We don't have an exact timeline on these things, but all of our partners are doing what they can to get us officially "cub-ready" as soon as possible. Each day we get closer!
In other exciting news, our limited edition 30th Anniversary mugs and soup bowls are in stock. They feature our 30th Anniversary logo with a forest green glaze! Grab yours today!
30th Anniversary Mug: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/handmade-pottery-mug-in-blue-30th-anniversary-green
30th Anniversary Soup Bowl: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/handmade-pottery-soup-mug-30th-anniversary ... See MoreSee Less
17 CommentsComment on Facebook