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I manage a campground in the mountains of southern NM that rents out to groups during the warmer months. Mostly we get church youth camps (i.e. teenagers without supervision) and family reunions (i.e. little kids without supervision). Due to the extremely warm and dry weather the wildlife is “encroaching on civilization”. Currently they're having trouble with a mountain lion trying to eat all the pets a half mile up the road and last night a full size black bear (he/she is a good 4+ ft tall at the shoulder) walked across the main part of the sleeping quarters to check out what soon will be the new horseshoe court (I filled the holes with water two days ago in preparation for tapping down the dirt solid) and then headed to the kitchen dumpster where it broke the clasps and made a mess. With the fun it had last night and the realization that this place has water & food somewhere I'm sure that he/she will be adding this place to its circuit. They are not predicting any significant precipitation until mid to late June, so the situation is only going to get worse.
I have a great opportunity here to share some survival knowledge and hopefully plant some seeds when I tell the campers about the wildlife situation and the need for some caution (with the fire danger it's going to be easy to talk about having a BOB to). However, I’m not exactly sure the best way to go about it without either scaring the kids to death (ideally not necessary-but 99% of the kids will be from the cities and have no wilderness skills or sense) or not getting the message about caution out enough and the kids getting in danger by not paying attention. I do not want to deal with the paperwork!
So please, help me out with some ideas about the best way to get the message across and what other survival skills/knowledge we can sneak in there.
Thanks
Sunring
I have a great opportunity here to share some survival knowledge and hopefully plant some seeds when I tell the campers about the wildlife situation and the need for some caution (with the fire danger it's going to be easy to talk about having a BOB to). However, I’m not exactly sure the best way to go about it without either scaring the kids to death (ideally not necessary-but 99% of the kids will be from the cities and have no wilderness skills or sense) or not getting the message about caution out enough and the kids getting in danger by not paying attention. I do not want to deal with the paperwork!
So please, help me out with some ideas about the best way to get the message across and what other survival skills/knowledge we can sneak in there.
Thanks
Sunring