This week’s police blotter lists about 20 calls concerning bear activity in the Haines Borough.
Deishu Drive, FAA Road, Mud Bay Road and Small Tracts Road continue to be bruin hot spots. The Haines School also has been a repeat destination for at least one of the animals.
“There’s a small black bear hanging out around town, real young and looks like he probably just got kicked loose from the mom recently,” said state wildlife trooper Rick Merritt. “He’s kind of wandering lost, and there’s a couple other brown bears hanging out around town that have been getting into houses, vehicles and doing some damage.”
Merritt this week said he would work with Fish and Game officials “to come up with a game plan” for addressing some of the bear issues. He said some years, bears are sighted near town as late as December.
“One kind of unique thing about Haines is we have a late coho run here, so we have fish in these rivers really late in the season,” Merritt said. “A lot of times bears that are looking to fatten up will still stay out and try to get that last run before going into hibernation.”