Ambassador contacts tied to a zero-campfire, zero-bear-conflict summer

Ambassadors for Responsible Recreation will get a performance check-in tied to a simple question that matters to anyone who camps north of town, did on-the-ground education help keep fires and food storage problems from turning into disasters? In meeting materials for Thursday, Friends of the Bridger-Teton says that in summer 2025 in the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s North Zone, ambassadors recorded more than 5,200 visitor contacts and the season ended with zero escaped campfires and zero human-bear conflicts in areas they patrolled. Ambassadors for Responsible Recreation Funding Application Agenda

Those are the kinds of outcomes that can be hard to see from a trailhead parking lot, because success looks like nothing happening. The board’s materials also frame the ambassadors’ work as hands-on and condition-driven, aimed at high-use dispersed camping areas like Shadow Mountain and Curtis Canyon, where one abandoned campfire or one bad cooler left out can turn into a long summer for everyone who recreates here. Ambassadors for Responsible Recreation Funding Application Agenda