In her latest piece, WPLN environmental reporter Caroline Eggers asks: “Black bears are threatened by climate change. How can we help?”
Below is an excerpt from Eggers’ piece, which features Appalachian Bear Rescue’s Executive Director, Greg Grieco, alongside our partners across conservation.
How climate change affects black bears
Bears used to cover all of Tennessee.
After centuries of hunting, mining and logging, they retreated to the high terrain of the Appalachian Mountains.
Tennessee now has an estimated 6,000 bears — following significant population growth in recent decades — with notable concentrations in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cherokee, the state’s only national forest.
These habitats remain under threat, according to Matt Drury, science director of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
“A lot of these systems are on the ropes from past mismanagement,” Drury said, along with expanding land developments.
Climate change poses additional challenges.
Take extreme weather events like Hurricane Helene: Two years ago, rapid winds and record rainfall flowed down the mountains and destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of forest. Then, non-native plants seized the opportunity to spread and knock out native species, disrupting a web of plants and animals in the process.
A lack of rainfall is also an issue. In the third week of May, Great Smoky Mountains National Park was in severe drought.
‘Dryness in the landscape can stress bears’
Dryness in the landscape can stress bears during the spring when natural food sources are already scarce, according to Greg Grieco, a longtime park ranger who now supports orphaned cubs through the Appalachian Bear Rescue.
“Bears’ diets are pretty much limited to salad and grubs in the springtime,” Grieco said.
That type of natural vegetation scarcity may push bears to look for food around people.
“Bears kind of always get the short end of the straw when it comes to this human-bear conflict continuum,” Grieco said. “What we see is bears constantly finding new ways to adapt to their environments, even though humans really don’t do anything to help bears.”
In addition to climate and development impacts, hunting practices still exists today: The state allows hunters to kill several hundred bears each year because, officials say, of a stable population.
Thank you to Eggers and WPLN for highlighting black bear conservation, and for featuring Appalachian Bear Rescue.
Top Photo: Greg Grieco, director of the Appalachian Bear Rescue, is in Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on May 20, 2026. By Jared Kunish / WKU Public Radio.