Earlier this year, Appalachian Bear Rescue made the difficult decision to close our Visitor & Education Center at Trillium Cove.  We’ve cancelled all presentations and speaking engagements at least through the end of the year.  Closing the doors to our friends is not something we take lightly, but we want to protect our supporters, volunteers, community and staff from the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

 

We’ve also taken steps to protect our staff. 

We have an emergency contingency plan in place in the event that illness or travel restriction require changes to our schedule.  We are in daily communication with our partners at The University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine and state and federal agencies. 

 

Last year, we announced our “More Room in the Den” Campaign.  The Campaign was designed to provide funding for a new Wild Enclosure and to upgrade parts of our facility to better care for bears in need.  Over the winter, we’ve renovated the Red Roof Recovery Center, upgraded the flooring in our Red Roof Recovery Center and Hartley House, purchased new Cub Nursery cages, moved existing nursery cages to Hartley House, installed easy-to-clean vinyl flooring to our dry storage and release staging buildings, and enclosed a shed for more storage space. We’re just days away from completing all winter projects, but because we have bears onsite and due to especially wet weather, we couldn’t construct road access to the new Wild Enclosure area or work with any new Wild Enclosure fencing.

 

We’ll keep posting daily updates on Facebook, and our Curators will continue to host Facebook Live sessions.  For those of you who do not use Facebook, our daily updates are also available on our ABR website at www.appalachianbearrescue.org The ABR Blog delivers daily updates in a different format at https://abrblog.wordpress.com.  Our online store is open for business and we’ve added new merchandise and reduced the shipping charges. https://appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com

 

Your continuing support is critically important as we navigate through these very difficult times.

 

We look forward to welcoming you back to our Visitor & Education Center and we thank you for your compassion for our little bears.  

Together, we will weather this storm.

 

Sincerely,

Dana Dodd, Executive Director

Appalachian Bear Rescue