The British Columbia Conservation Officer Service is very excited to welcome you to the 2026 Wildlife-Human Attack Response Training (WHART) Conference! This year, we have partnered with the Wyoming Game & Fish Department (WGFD) and the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) to bring you a WHART certification course in Cody, Wyoming. Our last delivery in 2023 in Bend, Oregon was a great success where we had 75 participants fully engaged for 5 full days of training. Watch a video featuring that delivery.

Workshop Details

The design of this five-day workshop is intended to reflect an interactive, reality-based, team learning environment specific to wildlife attack response. You will be assigned a team of which you will communicate and work with for the duration of the workshop. Throughout the week, you will be provided with information on how to investigate a wildlife attack thoroughly, professionally, and safely. All participants will have the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge acquired throughout the week in a final reality-based scenario.

The workshop will be held at Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Cody Regional Office (address: 2 Tilden Trail, Cody, Wyoming 82414) from Monday, April 13 through Friday, April 17. Each day will run 8:00am to 5:00pm MT. The workshop starts at 7:30 am on Monday morning and concludes mid-late afternoon on Friday the 17^th so make plans accordingly.

The training design for the 5-day workshop is best organized with teams of 5.  Agencies are encouraged to send groups up to 5 attendees (but not required). Groups larger than 5 will not be able to train on the same team and will be split into smaller groups and joined with other attendees. Please specify in the comments section if you know of members of your agency you would like to be placed with.

Participants are encouraged, but not required, to complete Incident Command System Training ICS 100 and 200 before attending the workshop.
Incident Command System Training link.

Remember, this is a certification course, so there is an evaluation required for certification (for those ineligible for certification, a certificate of participation will be provided). Certificates (both certification and attendance) will be sent to attendees via email within one business week of the conference close.

Further planning and logistics will be sent out prior to the commencement on April 13, 2026.

Lodging

Please reserve your lodging at either the Cody Hotel or Hampton Inn beginning the night of April 12. A block of rooms has been reserved at each hotel for the same rate. When booking please indicate that you are with the Wildlife Human Attack Response Training workshop.

A WAFWA Sanctioned Workshop

The Wildlife-Human Attack Response Training Workshop has periodic workshops hosted WAFWA Wildlife Chiefs Committee, but there is no regular schedule for these events.