Haines Borough residents have reported fewer bear-related issues this summer than last when dozens of bears were killed by police and residents.
The Haines Borough Police Department has received 153 calls about bears so far this year, compared to 350 by this time last year, police chief Heath Scott said. A caveat is that the police department now reports only bears perceived as threats or destroying property, not every sighting.
“It has been weeks since I’ve had someone notify me of a formal concern,” said Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Carl Koch. “This time last year, every week it just kept going. If I remember correctly, it was almost like this (time of year) was the peak. August to now was…a dead bear a week.”
Only two bears have been reported killed this year in Haines outside of the hunting season: a brown bear shot by a resident, and a black bear shot by the police, according to Koch. Last year 14 bears were killed in the townsite, and 30 were killed in Game Management Unit 1D, which includes both Haines and Skagway, the CVN reported.
State researchers suspect several factors have contributed to Haines’ drop in reported incidents and shootings. Abundant berries and adequate salmon runs seem to have kept bears from scavenging around town. Bear killings last year also might account for the decline in encounters this year. And community measures like education, electric fences and trash security might have helped cut down on nuisance calls, too.
“Resources were a lot more available to bears this year,” said state bear biologist Anthony Crupi, who’s leading a study, in its fourth year, on the upper Lynn Canal’s brown bear population. “We saw a lot of fish that were captured and consumed by bears, (and) the berry crop this year seemed to be very abundant—everything from blueberries to salmonberries, watermelon berries and even some berries we really hadn’t seen before.”
The availability of berries at high elevations and salmon at low ones has kept bears dispersed across the landscape, Crupi said.
Last year, which was a particularly poor berry and salmon year, Crupi said he observed bears that he had seen only in remote areas like Takhin Ridge and Glacier Point make their way to town. “In 2020… bears that I didn’t expect to have any association with town were coming to town. This year, bears were back to being bears.”
The uptick in killings last year also might account for the decrease in sightings and encounters this year. Crupi said he estimated that the brown bear population declined between 15% and 20% last year. “I’m not surprised that people are seeing fewer animals this year,” he said.
Crupi and Koch also credited the Haines community for increased vigilance, stricter bear attractant rules and more bear-secure waste management.
Although calls have been down, both Koch and Scott said they remain high, and during this time of year—early to mid fall—bear incidents in town often pick up. Before they head to their dens, bears enter a period of hyperphagia, or excessive hunger, as they prepare for hibernation. “They are really trying to eat as much as possible. We’ll start to get nuisance calls when that’s going on,” Koch said.
While Koch has received bear calls every month of the year, he said they are “far less common” from mid-December to March. Between 2008 and 2019 most brown bears in Haines entered dens from mid-November or early December until mid to late March, according to a state study involving 33 collared bears. If food is still available, they might delay denning, Koch said, stressing the need to continue securing trash, using electric fences and eliminating bear attractants.
Some rumors have swirled that the number of black bears in Haines has increased, maybe due to the decline in brown bear population. But Crupi said he doesn’t think that’s the case.
“Black bears are feeding on cherries, and there are a lot of cherries in town… It’s an easy place for them to get the resources that they need,” he said.