Good morning PBers! Or should I say, P-BEARS 🐻🐻🐻

The absolute most wonderful time of the year is almost upon us: Fat Bear Week!! Katmai National Park has announced that the official FBW dates this season are Sept 22-29. If you've never heard of FBW before, it's time to get informed and get hyped!!

Fat Bear Week 🔗 is an annual celebration of Katmai National Park's brown bears and their ascent to roundness. As the bears prepare for the winter, they spend the summer and fall months gorging on Brooks River's plentiful salmon population. Each September/October, the general public is invited to vote in a week-long bracket tournament to vote on the park's fattest bear. (There's also Fat Bear Junior, which takes place a few days before FBW begins to determine which of the park's cubs will be competing!)

Fat Bear Week is not only silly and fun, but it is an important reminder of the importance of environmental conservation. If it wasn't for the preservation of Katmai National Park and areas like it, there wouldn't be salmon and there wouldn't be bears. The bears' fatness is a testament to a healthy ecosystem.

Now that we're all good and excited, I have a favor to ask. I'm trying to set up a pop-up display at my library to spread both Fat Bear joy and information about environmental conservation. I am gathering a list of all-ages nonfiction about brown bears, salmon, national parks, and related conservation efforts. (Of course, included on my book list is The Bears of Brooks Falls: Wildlife and Survival on Alaska's Brooks River by Michael Fitz.) If anyone has any recommendations, I would be so grateful and happy to include them! And I will also be compiling these into a Pagebound list for anyone on here to reference, now or for future Fat Bear Weeks. :)

Thank you, and happy bear season!! 🐻