When the pink salmon are running up Chilkoot, in mid-July through mid-September, Chilkoot mama bears need to fish the river for their survival and that of their cubs. The collared mother bear on the river is Speedy’s only surviving descendant. It took her eight years to have her first set of cubs, now in their second year. Mama is thin and still nursing her young.
Somehow this mother bear with her cubs miraculously threads her way from the weir to below the bridge, around and across the bridge and back to the weir (or eventually back into the forest) and staying out of trouble while fisherfolk line the banks of the river, wade in the middle of the river, and observers, vehicles and photographers line the road.
If we want bears to stay out of town and away from prowling through town refuse and stealing from fruit trees, it will be best and safest for both people and bears if we let them have the river as much as possible during these critical months of late summer. We must do our part, each of us.
Leave the river when bears are in it. Take your gear with you. Pedestrians, vehicles and photographers also need to give the bears their space. As locals we can help educate the visitors.
State and borough agencies need to step up and collaborate to create improved staffing, parking and management in the long run.
Kathleen Menke