North Georgia’s rugged mountains and dense forests provide the ideal habitat for one of the region’s most iconic wildlife species: the American black bear. Once nearly eliminated from the state due to unregulated hunting and habitat loss, black bears have made a remarkable comeback in Georgia’s northern counties, representing one of the Southeast’s greatest conservation success stories, thanks to government protections and dedicated local naturalists who make it their mission to educate the community on how to peacefully coexist with black bears.
And it just might be that the American black bear of North Georgia has no greater friend today than Cherry Log resident Gerald D. Hodge Jr. and his wife, Connie, who in 2019 formed the Appalachia Georgia Friends of the Bears (AGFOB), a nonprofit organization that does for the bears what they can’t do for themselves — talk to humans, share their story and inform people how to be a good neighbor to these ancient natives.
Black bears thrived in North Georgia for centuries, but even before Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, there was trouble brewing for them…