Haines on bear alert: Addressing food sources key to preventing problems with bears, say officials

After a late snowmelt, Chilkat Valley brown bears are out of hibernation and looking for food. Last year there was a record number of bears killed, which launched several community initiatives to address bear attractants. Those prevention efforts should serve Haines well this year, say biologists and public safety officials.

Almost everyday, sometimes twice a day, Haines residents are receiving Nixel alerts from the Haines Police Department that there is a bear in the area. This week there was an alert during the afternoon that a brown bear was seen on Main Street, and headed towards the school.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Carl Koch says with the late snowmelt, there’s been less vegetation and bears are scavenging for food. 

 “They have an excellent sense of smell. Some say as good or better than a bloodhound.”

Koch says beginning in 2019, salmon runs  and berry yields were poor, leading to intense scavenging activity for bears, and for Haines. Last year, Koch got daily phone calls.

“They’re coming out of the den hungry,” Koch said. “The landfill was a little bit more secure, but there was an awful lot of freezers and things like that that bears had been getting into, including dumpsters and things like that.”

Koch says the key is prevention – in this case, think a thousand pounds of prevention. So make sure to secure any garbage or food sources that would attract bears to the area. 

“You’re always going to have bears, we’re not going to bring it down to zero. But you can reduce the complaints you know, by quite a lot if stuff is really battened down.”

Last year there were a record number of bears in and around Haines, and even breaking into homes and cars – meaning they were food conditioned. In total, there were 452 calls to Haines police, and an unprecedented 46 bears killed – some killed during the legal hunting season, by traffic on the Haines Highway, and by residents and law enforcement in defense of life and property.

Haines Police Chief Heath Scott says that is to be avoided this year, but he is still concerned. At this time last year, there were 52 bear related calls, according to Scott, this year there’s been 35 calls so far

“So that’s on tracking pretty closely,” Chief Scott said. “I think we’re going to have an as involved year as we did last year. So we’re just gonna help keep everyone informed about what’s going on, and try coordinating with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game from an education standpoint and us from an enforcement standpoint, and hope that we prevent some of these interactions.”

Wildlife Biologist Carl Koch says Haines has already put several prevention measures into place, which should serve the community well this year. There’s more fencing at the Haines dump, a new Bear Task Force, the Nixel alert system for sightings, and a bear ordinance. Residents are required to secure trash cans, and any other attractants like chicken coops, pet food or anything outside or in cars.

“There’s certainly no judgment here,” said Koch. “We live around bears so people are going to have bears come in their yard, we just know if things are really secured well, the number of calls will be more manageable, and it’ll be better for everyone in the community.”

Koch says Fish and Game is there to help people with any support or advice needed. They are also lending electric fences, which are very effective in securing property.

The department has had several public information sessions (“Living with Bears” and “Wildlife Safety in Southeast Alaska”) about bear safety this year, and plan to give more. They have a resource guides for bear safety on their website at alaskabears.alaska.gov.

For wildlife encounters that are not an immediate threat to public safety or property you can report on the web at this site: http://www.wildlifeencounters.adfg.alaska.gov/  which sends an email to Fish and Game staff.

 

(Correction: This story was corrected to add the record number of bears killed last year was during the legal hunting season, by traffic, and by residents and law enforcement in defense of life and property.)