Residents may face new restrictions on how they care for their garbage and other attractants like fruit trees and livestock under a proposed bear ordinance being developed by the Haines Borough.

Haines Borough Manager Mark Earnest said he expects to have a draft ordinance for consideration by the assembly at its Sept. 21 meeting. He said it will be fashioned after similar laws in Skagway, Sitka and Juneau.

Haines police, state troopers and state wildlife biologists have voiced support for such a law, including at a “bear summit” sponsored by the borough in August. Chilkoot Bear Foundation, a citizens’ group that focuses on bear issues, also is seeking the change.

“Getting the borough to deal with garbage will go a long way toward addressing this problem,” said wildlife trooper Ricky Merritt, who estimated that 80 percent of bear calls he receives stem from animals getting into garbage.

“I can’t remember a call where there was no attractant. Day after day, there’s something there attracting them. It’s garbage or it’s rabbits, or chickens, or barbecue grills. I think (an ordinance) is the right direction to take.”

Anthony Crupi, a former resident and Chilkoot bear researcher who now serves as the state’s assistant area wildlife biologist, said he expects resistance to the proposed law. “There will be a forceful pushing back on it because change is hard.”

Crupi told the summit that bears travel between town and the Chilkoot River. “You don’t have Chilkoot bears and town bears. You have bears. Everyone, collectively, has a responsibility in this.”

Wildlife biologist Ryan Scott, Crupi’s boss, said there’s more to bear control than adopting a bear ordinance. The law needs to be enforced and bear-resistant containers need to be built or purchased, then maintained.

“There’s always a segment of the population you can never get to change their ways, but by and large, most people in Juneau are happy with the ordinance. It’s effective,” Scott said. “It would help settle this relationship down.”

He said there would be “a long-standing debate” about the ordinance, but that addresses the root of the bear problem. “If you don’t fix the underlying issue, you’re just throwing rocks to the wind.”

Scott said the Fish and Game could load electrical fence units or “critter getters,” devices that emit a high-pitched squeal on approach. The squealing devices cost $56 and electric fences are about $100.

Resident Bob Lix said the borough could help out by providing bear-resistant containers or a community compost. “Maybe we can establish a couple places where these exist and people can come and dump their stuff.”

Park ranger Preston Kroes suggested creation of a volunteer group that would do free property inspections and help residents learn how to better prevent bear activity.

Carol Tuynman said she heard of a bear shot recently, although police in attendance had no knowledge of it. “Some of the people who are not being careful have lived here a long time.”

Chilkoot Bear Foundation’s Pam Randles is seeking ordinance wording that would make it illegal to create a “bear attraction nuisance.” A citation would be issued only after a resident failed to heed police direction to eliminate an attractant after a bear encounter.

“We’re asking that if people don’t take care of a situation after they’ve been asked to by authorities – at that point there’s a problem,” Randles said.

Randles said she supports ordinance wording “that wouldn’t punish people for just existing.”

“If they take reasonable precautions, they wouldn’t be prosecuted. We don’t want to create an onerous ordinance or make people pay hundreds of dollars for (bear-resistant trash bins). We’re just asking people to make an effort to keep trash from bears, and after they’ve been asked and the bears are back, that’s where the ordinance comes in,” she said.

While securing trash is a relatively simple fix, keeping bears from fruit trees, for example, is a more complex problem, she said. “People can pick their trees when they get ripe, but there’s not a simple, perfect solution to the cherry tree thing. We can just do the best we can.”

Randles has said the ordinance is necessary because recent public education campaigns only go so far in stemming the problem. Biologist Scott said education efforts need to continue after a bear ordinance is adopted.