A new monitor position and a certification program for volunteers are aimed at improving people-brown bear interactions along the Chilkoot River, where negligent behavior last summer led some longtime photographers to describe the scene as a “zoo.”
Two full-time employees, Brennan Whitermore and Jeremiah Brower, started this week sharing bear monitor duties along the Chilkoot.
In addition, 10 volunteers have received a four-hour training and certification under a new program aimed at establishing standards and improving relations between visitors and volunteer monitors.
“I feel this has good possibilities. I feel this should be a less chaotic situation (than last year),” Pam Randles, board president of the Haines-based Alaska Chilkoot Bear Foundation, said about the changes.
Biologists have documented that a dozen or more brown bears regularly feed on the Chilkoot, primarily on the pink salmon run that starts at the end of July and peaks about a month later. Commercial tour clients, sport fishermen, campers and independent visitors create crowds on the riverside, often close to the feeding bears.
Seven different bears – three sows and four cubs – already have been spotted this summer.
The foundation’s certification program, sanctioned by the Division of Parks, included training in Alaska laws and regulations, safety practices and strategies for dealing with people, including testy tourists, Randles said.
“Being a monitor is not an easy thing. You have to keep your cool when other people don’t. Because we’re sanctioned by parks, we have to be professional,” she said.
Certification also will help define authority for volunteer monitors, who will be issued orange vests bearing a Division of Parks patch. In the past, some people have claimed to be bear monitors who weren’t, Randles said. “They were yelling at people and it was ugly.”
Certified monitors will carry certificates and have been told to expect to produce them when they’re challenged.
Volunteer monitors will work during peak visitation times Tuesdays through Thursdays, plus holidays and to fill gaps, Randles said. “We’re trying to get the state the manpower they need when they need it.”
Brower works for the Alaska Conservation Corps and Whitermore’s pay includes money from local donations, including $7,000 from the Haines Borough and $2,000 from the Alaska Chilkoot Bear Foundation.
Park ranger Travis Russell said the pair will provide seven-day per week coverage, but not dawn to dusk. The pair will work together three days a week and will work in tandem with Russell. “I’ll be with one of them most of the time,” Russell said.
Whitermore has been hired through mid-September and Brower will stay on until mid-October, Russell said.
Randles said other foundation projects this year may include filling in potholes on the riverside road and manning tables at the state fair and farmer’s markets. The group’s outreach includes educating visitors and helping residents keep their properties safe from bears.
The nonprofit recently developed a checklist for residents, she said.