Got brown bears?
If you do, you may be the exception, as wildlife officials and residents say the numbers of bruins typically spotted around town and at the Chilkoot River are down from previous years.
“It’s slow,” said wildlife trooper Ken VanSpronsen, a three-year resident. The town typically has experienced run-ins with bears by this time of the summer, including shootings.
“By this time of year, people would call about bears tipping trash cans on Deishu Drive. We haven’t had any of those calls this year,” VanSpronsen said.
VanSpronsen said he’s heard a number of theories about the paucity of bears, including that a thin snowpack and early spring thaw has generated vegetative browse at higher elevations than in previous years. VanSpronsen said he’s seen a lot of bears, but not at low elevations.
“There are bears all over the place. They’ve just never pushed down. I’m sure we’ll see them when the pinks (salmon) come in,” he said.
There’s also speculation that an electric fence put around the Community Waste Solutions landfill on FAA Road reduced the number of habituated bears that have prowled Small Tracts, FAA and Mud Bay roads.
Fort Seward resident Norm Smith, whose house was twice torn into by a habituated bear, said a recent trip to the dump convinced him. “This is the reason. They’re taking care of their stuff up there. The place looked great. It shows what can be done.”
VanSpronsen said there was a “good possibility” that the dump fence has factored into the decreased number of run-ins, but the prints of one large boar that is a “dump bear” have been spotted this spring along Major Road, Deishu Drive and the fairgrounds.
He said a sow with cubs was recently seen on Front Street, but it apparently didn’t linger. “If they just wander through, that’s what we want.”
Dick Folta, a 44-year Lutak Inlet resident, said he usually sees sows and cubs on inlet beaches there by mid-May. “We’ve always seen bears in the spring down at the beach, digging up roots. For some reason, they’re not coming out. We’ve seen tracks of individual bears, but not cubs.”
Fish and Game wildlife biologist Ryan Scott said he doesn’t doubt that the dump fence is helping reduce the number of run-ins with residents. Scott said the light bear traffic here contrasts with levels of activity elsewhere this year, including Yakutat and Juneau. “Count your blessings,” he said.