SANDPOINT — It's a day of fun wrapped around a serious subject: Living safely in bear country.

The upcoming Bear Fair, scheduled in Boundary County this year, is a free, family-friendly afternoon of hands-on training for the people who live closest to Idaho's bears.

"If you live in North Idaho, you live in bear country," Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials said. "Plain and simple."

The day offers residents a chance to ask any number of questions:

• A bear is wandering in your direction. What do you do?

• A neighborhood apple tree is packed with fruit, and a bear has discovered its bounty. What do you do?

• Looking for fresh eggs, you've decided to raise chickens. How do you keep them safe?

Black bears range across the entire Panhandle, and Bonner and Boundary counties sit squarely in grizzly bear country, Fish & Game officials said.

"Fall is the hardest season to share with them, as bears are packing on calories ahead of winter," said T.J. Ross, communications manager for Idaho Fish and Game's Panhandle Region. "Oftentimes, apple trees, garbage cans, chicken coops, beehives and livestock that make up a North Idaho fall are exactly what they are looking for."

To help residents get ready, Idaho Fish and Game and its partners are hosting the free North Idaho Bear Fair from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Boundary County Fairgrounds, 6567 Recreation Park Road, Bonners Ferry.

"The North Idaho Bear Fair is a great opportunity for long-time residents, newcomers and visitors to refresh their bear spray skills, learn about available resources and put their extra apples and pears to good use," said Morgan Pfander, Fish and Game grizzly bear biologist in the Panhandle. "We’re looking forward to another strong turnout this year."

No registration is required, and the event is open to all ages. Food will be served while supplies last, and attendees can enter to win door prizes.

The event includes bear spray training using inert bear spray canisters on Fish and Game's remote-controlled charging grizzly bear. In addition, participants will learn the basics of how to protect livestock, chicken coops, animals and beehives with electric fencing and will have the chance to use a large press to make fresh cider with their apples. The fair will also offer information about a livestock carcass pickup program, a collaboration between Fish and Game and the Office of Species Conservation; camping safety in bear country; and a host of other helpful information.

"Participants can experience the reality of a bear running straight at them so they can practice drawing and firing an inert canister of bear spray under real pressure," Ross said. "Owning bear spray and knowing how to use it are two different things, and three seconds is not enough time to read the instructions."

Everyone who completes the training will take home a free canister of bear spray, while supplies last.

With unpicked and fallen fruit one of the most common attractants bringing bears to the region's homes, the community cider press provides a solution to what to do with the apples.

Staff from Fish and Game and every partner agency will be on hand to answer questions about specific properties, neighborhoods or hunting spots.

Now in its fourth year, Idaho Fish and Game has rotated the fair between Bonner and Boundary counties for the past several years to expand its reach to as many of the region's residents as possible.

Bears are common in the region, with black and grizzly bears reported from Bonners Ferry to Priest Lake to Coeur d'Alene, making bear safety training important for everyone in the region, fair organizers said.

"The main thing is to reduce human conflict with not just grizzly bears and black bears but bears in general," Shelby Therrian, wildlife division manager for the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, said previously. "We all need to know to safely recreate in the backcountry and, most importantly, reduce bear conflict."

Those skills include everything from knowing how to use bear spray properly to fencing off chicken coops to gleaning apples after they ripen instead of letting them fall.

"We need to coexist with bears in general in North Idaho," Therrian said. "So how do we do that safely so that it's good for humans and bears?"

The North Idaho Bear Fair is a partnership among Idaho Fish and Game, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Wildlife Services, the Idaho Governor's Office of Species Conservation and the Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative.

Please contact the Panhandle Regional Office at 208-769-1414 with any questions or to report unusual or dangerous bear encounters in the Panhandle.

    A resident works to identify which pictures show black bears and which show grizzly bears at the 2025 North Idaho Bear Fair in Sandpoint.