Haines on track for fall hunt
or the second spring in a row, two male brown bears were harvested in the Chilkat Valley, keeping the door open for a fall hunt.
Both bears were taken late in the season, in the fourth week of May, said Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) biologist Carl Koch.
Two years ago ADFG lowered the yearly brown bear harvest cap to five bears, down from 16, after 30 were killed in Haines in the summer of 2020 outside of the hunting season. Nineteen bears were harvested during the 2020 hunts.
The state estimated that the area’s brown bear population fell by about 16% to 20% that year.
“I’m pleased with the way things have gone since we started the plan,” said state biologist Carl Koch. “This year we’re on a good track.”
Koch said a key component of the plan is to lower the number of non-hunt kills, and the department’s main objective is to maintain a sustainable and huntable population.
“The whole plan is designed to preserve hunting opportunity,” he said, adding that the new limit will be reevaluated once the state finishes a formal brown bear population estimate, likely within the next two years.
An average of 2.8 brown bears were harvested in the five spring hunts prior to 2021, when the five-bear cap was established. Only two were taken in the spring of 2020, but Koch said that was likely lower than usual because the hunt was closed to non-residents due to covid.
Prior to the new management plan more bears were harvested in the fall than spring. An average of 10 to 13 bears were taken each year, Koch said.
The limit instituted before the 2021 spring hunting season is five bears with an additional allowance of two non-hunt kills, as long as they aren’t both female. Non-hunt kills past the two-bear limit count toward the harvest. If two female bears are killed, the department will order an emergency hunt closure.
So far this year there have been no non-hunt kills and no females have been killed by humans.
ADFG for the first time ever closed the hunt early last fall after a total of six bears were killed. Two males were harvested in the spring. Two more males and one female were taken in the fall. And there was one kill in defense of life and property. The hunt closed more than two months before it usually ends, on Dec. 31.
Koch said 19 hunters received permits for the spring brown bear hunt this year. Only four participated, and two killed bears. Some could have been black bear hunters who didn’t intend to kill brown bears but obtained permits just in case.
Koch said the number of permits was “low” compared to years before the new management plan was instituted.
The spring black bear hunt is ongoing. So far 12 black bears have been taken in Haines with about three weeks left in the season, Koch said. (An additional three were harvested in Skagway, which is in the same game unit as Haines.)
From 2002 to 2020 an average of 26 black bears were harvested annually during April, May, and June.
Koch said ADFG didn’t change restrictions on black bear hunting — even though there was a high mortality in 2020 — because black bears have a faster reproductive rate than brown bears. Black bear sows tend to breed every other year, while brown bears usually have litters every four or five years.
Koch credited Haines residents for efforts taken to prevent encounters with bears.
“Haines has done a lot. They have new dumpsters. Community Waste has extended their hours,” Koch said. “Last time I was there I saw a lot more electric fences.”
The spring brown bear hunt runs from March 15 to May 31. The fall hunt extends from Sept. 15 to Dec. 31.