The Haines Borough Bear Task Force is working on a detailed recommendation for funding a new “wildlife tech” position to help address the community’s bear problem.
At a Feb. 18 meeting, task force members said they hope to finalize the recommendation in time for consideration during this year’s budget process. Borough departments have started working with interim manager Alekka Fullerton to come up with proposals for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Fullerton is scheduled to release a draft budget for assembly consideration on April 1.
Task force members said they plan to use Juneau’s community services officers as a model for the position.
In Juneau, community services officers are part of the police department’s Community Services Unit and are “responsible for addressing police-related issues that do not require police officers,” including parking, abandoned vehicles, garbage enforcement and urban bear attractants.
Last fall, the Bear Task Force made a similar recommendation: that the assembly consider hiring a seasonal public safety officer to perform outreach and assist police during bear season, a recommendation the assembly never addressed.
The assembly is currently working on an ordinance that members hope will clarify the borough’s bear attractant code and improve compliance. Those in attendance at the Feb. 18 task force meeting said that community outreach and enforcement will be critical pieces in successfully implementing the new code, if the ordinance passes.
“Enforcement is a huge part of the equation,” Patty Kermoian said, noting that law enforcement has done little to enforce current bear attractant code.
Alaska State Parks ranger Travis Russell agreed that enforcement needs to be more consistent. He added that education is a critical component.
“I do think we also need to educate the public and give them an opportunity to correct their behavior. Some people may not know that what they’re doing is incorrect,” Russell said. “I will talk to the Haines Police Department as well as the wildlife trooper and make sure that we are all on the same page in terms of what merits a citation and what merits educational contact.”
Police chief Heath Scott said he thinks there’s potential for more proactive bear attractant enforcement, but said he doesn’t think the department has the resources to do outreach with its present budget.
“Our department is just not set up to be flexible enough to be responding to calls, nurturing our community and taking on four-hundred and fifty-one bear calls for service,” Scott said. “If we want to move forward and see some fruits from our labor, that wildlife tech is going to be an important aspect of this.”
Scott suggested the task force use the Juneau community services officer job description as a starting place for the wildlife tech position and said the task force will need to work through questions including whether the position should be limited to issuing warnings when property owners aren’t complying with bear attractant code, whether the position should respond to bear calls like a regular police officer, whether the position should be seasonal or year-round, and whether the position should assist other departments.
Bear Task Force chair Derek Poinsette asked that Scott put his thoughts in writing in preparation for a meeting to finalize the recommendation in the coming week.
At the Feb. 18 task force meeting, members also recommended the assembly amend the bear attractant ordinance currently under consideration to explicitly list common attractants including “foods or animal parts, livestock feed, harvestable fruits, and compost,” a recommendation the assembly voted down at a meeting Tuesday, 4-2. The two members in support of the amendment were Carol Tuynman and Caitie Kirby.
At the same assembly meeting, members voted to hold an additional hearing on the bear attractant ordinance after several said they had heard concerns from community members.
“It’s just been within the last couple days that people have really started reaching out to me to give me feedback and information,” assembly member Cheryl Stickler said. “It’s worth us taking the time so that we can pass good policy.”
During public comment on Tuesday, Don Turner and Gary Keller spoke in opposition to the ordinance.
“We’re getting to be (overly regulated) like San Diego. Pretty soon we’re going to have to have steel doors and bars on our windows,” Keller said.
Turner said he had concerns about the ordinance’s lack of specificity. He highlighted a phrase in current borough code that classifies “more than one-half gallon of any putrescible waste” as an attractant.
“There are apple trees on borough property, so if the borough property’s got a bunch of apples on it, do we fine the Mayor for a bunch of apples on the ground?” he said.
In response to assembly and community members’ comments, Poinsette emphasized that the language in the ordinance doesn’t add much to the list of bear attractants. He said instead, the proposed changes are designed to clarify existing code.
“Hypothetically, if the code doesn’t change and you have a bucket of fish guts or a pallet of chicken feed, and you put an electric fence around it to keep bears away, you can get a ticket for that because the code right now doesn’t say an electric fence is a legal way of securing an attractant,” Poinsette said. “That’s the point of this new language around electric fences, to make them a legally acceptable way of securing an attractant. The point is not really to make a fence a requirement.”
The ordinance and wildlife tech recommendation are part of an ongoing effort to prevent a repeat of last year’s bear season. The past few years, the borough has experienced a rise in bear-caused property damage, and bears shot in defense of life and property. In 2020, at least 26 bears were shot in the Haines Borough outside of hunting season.