The borough’s tourism board is pushing the assembly to get involved in the crowding issue along Chilkoot River. The Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) voted unanimously last Thursday to recommend the assembly discuss the problem with tour operators and land managers at their annual tour operator conduct meeting in the spring.

The Chilkoot Corridor has had ongoing difficulties with vehicle and pedestrian traffic as visitors view and photograph bears along the roadway. The state completed a $2 million roadway reconstruction project in June 2021 to improve congestion and encourage bear-viewing from safe distances. However, TAB members, tour operators and area residents have questioned the efficacy of the project.

“There are still certainly concerns out there, there’s no doubt about that,” TAB board member Steven Auch said. “The project certainly made the road surface nicer, but if you talk to a lot of people out there the traffic congestion is still a concern. There is less parking and access to the river is certainly more difficult with the embankment being steeper and higher.”

Lutak Spur Road resident Richard Buck urged TAB to recommend the assembly hire a bear monitor at a TAB meeting last month. According to Alaska State Parks superintendent Preston Kroes, the label “bear monitor” may be misleading, as bear monitors are stationed to monitor people rather than wildlife.

“It’s a people problem not a bear problem,” Kroes said. “It’s the people that approach the bears, rarely the bears that approach the people.”

While there has never been a bear attack in the Chilkoot area, TAB board member Diana Lapham says the possibility of dangerous human-bear encounters is a “potential issue waiting to happen.” Kroes reported that the only bear killed in the Chilkoot area was in the 1980s and involved a trash issue, not an attack against humans.

“There’s always a lot of concern and conversation over it but of all the human-bear encounters in the Haines Borough area, none of them have occurred at Chilkoot,” Kroes said.

Haines has been without a park ranger since October 2021, due to understaffing issues at the DNR. However, park rangers are responsible for all parks in the Haines Borough and cannot be permanently stationed at Chilkoot.

At last week’s TAB meeting, former Chilkoot Lake campground host and photography guide Tom Ganner said he has suggested the borough recruit volunteers to work with the parks department, but the idea was never developed.

While TAB has recommended the assembly discuss the issue with stakeholders and land managers, Lapham says this meeting is not a final solution.

“It’s still a muddy picture really,” Lapham said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do, I really don’t. This has been going on for years and years and this topic, it’s just a hard thing.”