Black bears (Ursus americanus) and grizzly bears (U. arctos) were fairly common in the Great Basin Desert of Nevada until logging to supply gold rush mines with timber support structures, combined with unregulated hunting, drove them to local extinction in the 1930s. Over the next 50 years bear habitat in Nevada gradually recovered. In the 1980s, bears began to move back into the state from California though sightings were still rare events. By the mid-1990s, bears and people were increasingly coming into uncomfortably close proximity. This was unnerving for people watching bears raid their garbage, and deadly for bears hit by traffic. In Lake Tahoe and the Western Great Basin Desert in western Nevada between the early 1990s and early 2000s WCS scientists documented a 10-fold increase in the annual number of complaints about bear encounters and a 17-fold increase in bear deaths after being struck by vehicles. Motivated by a desire to minimize bear-human conflicts and to reduce bear mortality WCS partnered with the Nevada Department of Wildlife to map core habitat patches and connectivity corridors for bears, and study how bear behavior, health and reproduction was influenced by access to human foods and garbage. Results showed that urban bears reach reproductive age earlier than wildland bears and had higher rates of reproduction. Yet this did not result in an increase in the urban bear population as mortality rates, primarily from being struck by vehicles, were higher in all age classes compared to those in wildland bears. This research showed, surprisingly, that urban areas in Nevada were a sink for bears and the primary source for human-bear conflicts. These studies showed clearly that reducing bears’ access to human food waste and deterring bears from taking up residence in urban areas would help minimize human-bear conflicts and bear mortality. Over the last decade, WCS and NDOW along with other partners raised over $3 million to distribute bear-resistant trash cans and dumpsters in the Lake Tahoe Basin, and convinced 6 counties in the area to put in place ordinances requiring home owners and businesses to use bear-resistant garbage containers. Simultaneously, we launched a non-lethal deterrent program to alter the behavior of “nuisance bears” that have lost their fear of people. Karelian Bear Dogs that have an instinct for handling bears safely are used to chase and bark at problem bears until they run away. Using bear dogs has proven more successful than relocating conflict bears, which tend to simply return to their capture locations within days or weeks. Combining targeted prevention and deterrence approaches has resulted in an increase in black bear numbers from around 180 in the late 1990s to over 600 individuals today. Bears are now, once again, roaming across the mountains of Nevada where they had been absent for over 80 years. The Western Great Basin of Nevada is an excellent and replicable example of successful re-colonization by large carnivores, as a result of conservation efforts by WCS and our partners.