10 years ago, July 3, 2014
Bruins Not Around Yet
Got brown bears?
If you do, you may be the exception, as wildlife officials and residents say the numbers of bruins typically spotted around town and at the Chilkoot River are down from previous years.
“It’s slow,” said wildlife trooper Ken VanSpronsen, a three-year resident. The town typically has experienced run-ins with bears by this time of the summer, including shootings.
“By this time of year, people would call about bears tipping trash cans on Deishu Drive. We haven’t had any of those calls this year,” VanSpronsen said.
VanSpronsen said he’s heard a number of theories about the paucity of bears, including that a thin snowpack and early spring thaw that has generated vegetative browse at higher elevations than in previous years. VanSpronsen said he’s seen a lot of bears, but not at low elevations.
“There are bears all over the place. They’ve just never pushed down. I’m sure we’ll see them when the pinks (salmon) come in,” he said.
There’s also speculation that an electric fence put around the Community Waste Solutions landfill on FAA Road reduced the number of habituated bears that have prowled Small Tracts, FAA and Mud Bay roads.
Fort Seward resident Norm Smith, whose house was twice torn into by a habituated bear, said a recent trip to the dump convinced him. “This is the reason. They’re taking care of their stuff up there. The place looked great. It shows what can be done.”
VanSpronsen said there was a “good possibility” that the dump fence has factored into the decreased number of run-ins, but the prints of one large boar that is a “dump bear” have been spotted this spring along Major Road, Deishu Drive and the fairgrounds.
He said a sow with cubs was recently seen on Front Street, but it apparently didn’t linger. “If they just wander through, that’s what we want.”
Dick Folta, a 44-year Lutak Inlet resident, said he usually sees sows and cubs on inlet beaches there by mid-May. “We’ve always seen bears in the spring down at the beach, digging up roots. For some reason, they’re not coming out. We’ve seen tracks of individual bears, but not cubs.”
Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Ryan Scott said he doesn’t doubt that the dump fence is helping reduce the number of run-ins with residents. Scott said the light bear traffic here contrasts with levels of activity elsewhere this year, including Yakutat and Juneau. “Count your blessings,” he said.
July 1, 1999, 25 years ago
Local population likely to outpace S.E. growth: Projection looks 20 years into future
Haines’ population is predicted to grow faster than most of Alaska during the next 20 years and will outpace nearly all communities in Southeast, according to a recent report by the state Department of Labor.
The population projections, which show Haines Borough expanding to 3,146 residents by 2018, are based on trends observed during the past decade, said demographer Greg Williams. “They basically say if things continue the way they have been in the 1990s, this is what you expect…It’s not a crystal ball.”
Statewide, the population is expected to grow to 776,488 during the next 20 years, an increase of 24.9 percent. Southeast, one of the state’s slowest growing regions, will increase 13 percent.
Haines’ projected growth of 27 percent is topped regionally only by Yakutat, which is expected to grow 70 percent to 1,378 during the next two decades. Ketchikan is expected to grow, as well, but the 38 percent rate cited in the report is likely too high, as it doesn’t consider the effects of closure of the town’s pulp mill a year ago, Williams said.
Yakutat’s apparently high growth rate is magnified by its small population. “You’re seeing huge (percentage) growth, but the numbers aren’t all that big,” Williams said. “With small numbers, you really don’t want to place emphasis on percentage growth.”
Sitka, Wrangell and Petersburg, and the combined populations of Skagway, Hoonah and Angoon, are expected to fall 9 to 14 percent during the next two decades. Prince of Wales Island is expected to grow 10.6 percent and Juneau, 13.9 percent.
Haines is one of relatively few areas where population growth is expected to be fueled by new residents moving into the area.
“There’s been some spillover, mostly from Juneau, in that direction in this decade,” Williams said. “It’s one of the few positive areas in Southeast for migration.”
Statewide, the population is expected to increase despite a net loss of residents moving out of state. Births are expected to outnumber deaths in Alaska by about 155,000 during the next two years.
In Haines, the populations of senior citizens and children under 18 are expected to grow at rates lower than the state average.
“Southeast is a slow grower, partly because its population is the oldest of any area in the state,” Williams said. And because Haines already is home to the oldest population in the state, growth in senior citizens is less noticeable than in small populations, he said.
Williams said a more detailed report, which attempts to link and interpret economic effects on population, is in the works.
July, 1974, 50 years ago
Don Young talks about impeachment, 200-mile limit, pipelines, and land
Alaska’s only U.S. Congressman Don Young (R), on a brief visit to Haines Friday, expressed himself on a wide series of topics from impeachment of president Richard Nixon to a 200-mile territorial waters limit.
He is seeking re-election this fall.
In regard to impeachment, he said he would “listen to the facts of the investigating committee.”
“On those facts alone I’ll base my decision. When I cast that vote, it’ll be on those facts as I see them,” he said. He expects the vote to be held August 23, 1974.
He said he felt that Congress has not acted “responsibly” and has permitted the president – any president, not just the present one – to have too much power.
On extending the jurisdiction of the U.S. 200 miles out to sea, Young felt that by the end of this year the Congress would approve such a limit. He said he is a sponsor of legislation to set up the 200-mile limit, and that of the 218 votes needed in the House of Representatives, 168 are now assured. Japan and the U.S. are the only two nations at the Law of the Sea Conference now meeting in Venezuela which oppose the 200-mile limit, he said.
Young answered questions from the floor at the no-host luncheon at the Hotel Halsingland. He was opposed to limiting Japanese investment in the U.S. since limitations would have to apply to other nations as well – such as oil-producing nations who could help the balance of trade situation by investing. Besides, he said, the U.S. invested in nations all over the world and such investments might be jeopardized.
Asked about the utilization of the Haines-Fairbanks pipeline, the congressman said he opposed any route which goes through a foreign country, citing natural gas problems in Michigan and Washington where Canada has either cut off contracted gas or doubled the contracted price.
He also declared that both companies which are seeking to build a gas pipeline from the North Slope – one through Canada, one through Alaska paralleling the oil pipeline – have been “dishonest with Alaska.”
Alaska needs to insist that an intrastate gas pipeline be built, not just an interstate one, Young declared. “You can’t tap off the main line for local use,” he said, pointing out that the gas in an interstate pipeline would have to be routed outside Alaska, and if transported for consumption by people for heating and cooking, it could not be diverted for fertilizer production or industrial power such as Alaska would want. He felt that if necessary, the state should build a gas pipeline – “There’s no better way to invest money and to have control” – or see to it that gas companies build a line for Alaska.
Young said he is at work on a law which will permit homesteading to continue for 20 years, and to continue homesites. “There is less privately owned land in Alaska than in any other state in the Union,” he said.
As for a government subsidy to meat producers to bolster the falling price of meat at the production level, he said he would probably vote against it, although he said farmers were getting only 32 cents per pound. He attributed the high price consumers pay for meat – despite the low price received by farmers – to wages paid in the processing of meat.
Young felt the customs office at Haines belongs where it is, “close to the port it serves.”
The congressman said he felt each person owes two years of his life to public office. He said that he has spent many weekends flying between Alaska and Washington, and claims the highest voting average of the Alaska delegation to Congress. He is a member of the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee and the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee.
Young was accompanied by his wife and by Bill Bernhardt of Juneau, one of the owners of Southeast Skyways and a candidate for the seat representing District 4 in the Alaska House of Representatives.