A female brown bear. (Alaska Department of Fish and Game)
Haines police killed four bears last week after receiving reports that they damaged property and in one case entered a home. Bears scavenging for food in residential areas has become an ongoing issue for the community.
Over the past month, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Haines Borough Police Department received numerous reports about a sow with two cubs causing damage to residences. Haines Borough Police Chief Heath Scott said it was becoming a public safety concern.
“The sow and cubs were entering dwellings that did not have attractants. They’ve broken entry doors, they’ve broken garage doors. It led all parties that were within that coordinated effort to believe that those bears were habituated to garbage and they probably needed to be euthanized,” Scott said.
Fish and Game officials spent four days trying to track and kill the bears, but they were unsuccessful. They passed off the task to the police department and issued a permit for the officers to dispatch the bears as soon as they had a clear shot.
Before they got a clear shot on the sow and cubs, HBPD received another call last week about a different bear causing problems at residences on Oslund and Highland Drive.
“We were called out and stayed out till about 1 in the morning and then were called out at 5 o’clock in the morning to deal with that same bear,” Scott said. “We suspected that bear was trying to get into residents’ homes on Skyline.”
Police shot the bear last Tuesday and cited a resident for attracting it to the area with an unsecured compost pile.
Then on Saturday, a caller reported that the sow with two cubs had entered a home on Piedad Road. Police responded to the call shortly after and dispatched the three bears.
“[It’s] not anything that any member of my organization wants to do or looks forward to doing. But as soon as bears start entering dwellings, they become a public safety concern and we have to address that,” Scott said
Fish and Game Biologist Carl Koch has been working with the police department to address bear issues in Haines.
When asked if the sow and cubs could have been relocated, he said that has not been effective in the past.
“We never would relocate a bear that has been breaking into homes or breaking into buildings,” Koch said. “You would be moving a bear that could break into somebody’s cabin while it’s occupied or something like that. It’s just not a good practice.”
Koch said that hazing and aversive conditioning can be effective to keep bears away, but the best thing residents can do is secure foods and other bear attractants.
“You can remove some bears and especially the ones that are causing the most serious threat to property, but preventing them from being in the area in the first place is the way to go,” Koch said.
Koch believes there have been improvements since last fall, when Haines saw a spike in bear activity. The landfill is much more secure and there are far less issues with bears getting into dumpsters. Recently, Koch said he has heard more about bears getting into chicken coops, freezers and gardens.
Police Chief Scott said that from what he has seen, most residents are securing their attractants. This year the department has only issued two citations to residents for leaving out bear attractants. He thinks the bears may be spending more time in residential areas because they can no longer access food at the landfill.
“They’ve made it more secure, there’s not the readily available food source for the bears, and the bears have to go somewhere. If these bears have been habituated to garbage for years, it’s likely that they’re going to come to residences.”
The Haines Borough convened a bear task force earlier this year to address the issue of bears roaming around town. The group intends to make recommendations that the assembly can adopt to improve the situation. Its next meeting is on July 7th.
