Laypeople and experts alike have noticed that bear activity is ramping up after a relatively calm summer.
Late last month, a bear got into a storage unit on Small Tracks Road. Over the weekend, two more ursine break-ins were reported — one of a cabin and the other of an RV. Both were unoccupied at the time.
There have also been issues with a few dumpsters around town — especially noteworthy since these are the high-tech bear-proof dumpsters that Community Waste Solutions (CWS) invested in after 2020’s fraught summer of bear-human altercations.
The dumpsters are certified “bear resistant” by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC); they are chained to heavy concrete blocks and close with recessed locks.
Franke said before this summer, he had never seen a tied-down dumpster tipped by a bear, nor had he seen evidence of a bear ripping through the IGBC latch hardware.
“My feeling is we’ve got one (bear) right now that’s extraordinarily active and persistent in getting into dumpsters,” said CWS manager Craig Franke. “He’s going way above and beyond.”
In one case, Franke said footprints showed that the animal had braced itself against the edge of a building to get more leverage on the dumpster.
Franke and Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Colin Koch both emphasized that in many cases, the owners of the breached dumpsters are “doing everything right.”
Koch praised CWS’s many efforts since 2020 to improve the situation — including the introduction of bear-resistant dumpsters, extension of landfill drop-off hours, and new electric fencing. He also commended the Takshanuk Watershed Council’s fruit tree cleaning program, Burl Sheldon’s effort to install more electric fences, and the assembly’s ordinance requiring trash to be secured and chicken coops to be affected.
Together, these things have had an obvious positive effect, Koch said.
But at this time of year, incidents with bears are on the rise everywhere. As fall progresses, the animals are driven by a feeling of intense hunger, or “hyperphagia,” which compels them to put on as much weight as possible before winter.
The pink salmon run is reported to be slightly lower this year than last. However, Koch said he heard the berry crop is good, so the brown bear population is probably not as desperate for food as it was in 2020.
Experts estimated that the valley’s brown bear population decreased by 16 to 20% after 2020, when a total of 49 were shot — 19 in the hunting season and 30 outside of it. That summer, bears had caused thousands of dollars in property damage after breaking into sheds, garages, vehicles and homes.
Last summer saw both fewer killings and fewer property damage issues compared to 2020.
Koch said as far as his agency knows, no bears in the area have been killed this summer — either as “agency kills” or DoP (defense of property) killings.