When Rebecca Hylton first moved to Haines 28 years ago, she said it was pretty well understood that people did not go into the woods along the east side of the Chilkoot River. 

“I mean, you can during the hooligan run when the bears aren’t around, that’s totally fine. The river is super low and … it’s not all bushy. You have clear visibility,” she said. 

But now, the heavily wooded area draws a lot of foot traffic and Hylton said she has noticed significantly more activity on that side of the river. She’s also seen a lot of conflict between bears and people this year.

So, she said she went to Haines’ borough manager at the time and asked for permission to put some signs up on borough land just past the bridge.

“There’s a human with an ‘x’ like ‘do not go here,’” Hylton said. “Because there’s a lot of language barrier. So I wanted to be clear with the messaging.”

Originally, Hylton said she intended to spend funds from the visitor center’s budget on the signs – but she said Mayor Tom Morphet got wind of the idea and decided it should go in front of the assembly. 

That delayed things by six to eight weeks, she said, but ultimately the Haines Borough Assembly voted to spend $3,000 on signs, and to get the Great Bear Foundation to help craft the language. 

The first signs went up in mid-September. 

Hylton said she knows that caution signs are a small step – but sees it as an important one. 

“It was a no-brainer,” she said.”That’s an easy thing that I think the entire community can stand behind. And I’m really happy that we’ve taken one little action step to kind of mitigate the problem.”

They put one sign in a parking lot across the bridge where people often park and take a path into the woods and another that can be seen from the bridge. She said the other signs will be installed when it’s safer for staff to go into an area frequented by bears. 

Hylton said she ordered signs to be put elsewhere in town as well. There are now signs at Tlingit Park, Picture Point and at the Port Chilkoot Dock. Those caution people to be bear aware rather than closing those areas to the public. 

A final sign for the visitors center is expected in about a month and the remaining two signs out at Chilkoot might be a project for the spring, she said.