After 3 maulings, some Anchorage residents want wildlife officials to crack down on bears

MARY PEMBERTON | Associated Press Writer
5:17 AM EDT, May 11, 2009


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Spring is here and bears are emerging from their dens for the short stroll to Alaska's largest city. Some residents are putting out the NO VACANCY sign.

Anchorage has a reputation for being bear tolerant but after three maulings last summer — including a 15-year-old girl who nearly bled to death when attacked by a grizzly in a city park — a chorus of outrage is building.

Wanda Phillips is among them. She recently moved from Washington state — where she saw no bears — to the Anchorage suburb of Eagle River, where there are lots of bears.

Last summer, Phillips saw at least 10 bears near her home. A grizzly camped out in her back yard defending a moose kill. Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials told her to keep the family inside until the bear was finished with the carcass.

"It (that advice) didn't seem very helpful to me," she said. "We have a real safety problem. The fact they are ignoring it is a time bomb."

Anchorage is unique among mid-sized American cities. The municipality's 285,000 residents share space with at least 65 brown bears and about 250 black bears. The sprawling municipality is surrounded by wild country. Anchorage is next to Chugach State Park, a half-million acre park that wildlife officials have described as a "bear factory."

Deaths from bear maulings are uncommon in the municipality. In July 1995, a mother and son were killed by a bear defending a moose carcass along McHugh Creek Trail. However, the mauling of Petra Davis, followed by another attack on the same park trail later last summer and the mauling of a young man in Eagle River, have some residents demanding a crackdown on the bears.

Trash day is a real spectacle, Phillips said.

"You can sit on the deck and look from our windows and watch them cruise the neighborhood looking for people that don't use bear cans. They literally go from driveway to driveway to driveway," Phillips said.

Her children are not allowed to walk alone this time of year. They always are armed with pepper spray, she said.

Last summer, some children walking home from school encountered a large grizzly. They huddled up in a driveway, made lots of noise to scare off the bear and called for help on their cell phones.

Phillips, who was at her job 20 minutes away, got a call.

"My kids are screaming 'There is a grizzly bear. We can't get home,'" she said.

One of the mothers rescued the children.

"I think a kid is going to end up being killed," Phillips said.

Already this summer, there is a feeling of deja vu. Last Friday, a sign went up on one of the city's most popular trails warning people of a black bear sow defending her cubs. Last month, a black bear chased some skiers and treed a man in the same park where two maulings occurred last summer.

"People think, 'Holy cow, we are under assault'," said Rick Sinnott, an area biologist with the Department of Fish and Game overseeing the bear problem.

In a move to target bolder bears before they reach Anchorage, Sinnott said hunting opportunities for brown bear have been increased in the Chugach State Park. Ten permits will be issued. Sinnott hopes no more than three are killed.

"We don't really want to reduce the population that much," he said.

Anchorage is not being overrun by bears, Sinnott said.

"I think it was kind of an unusual situation last year in part because I think we had a couple of brown bear sows with cubs in places where we probably can't tolerate them," he said.

He points to a 1997 survey that showed most people in Anchorage liked having bears around. But, he said, Anchorage's tolerance could be waning. Another survey is planned for this fall.

In the meantime, Anchorage's bear management policy will remain much the same as in the past, Sinnott said. If a particular bear is dangerous and has hurt someone and is likely to hurt someone again, it will be shot, Sinnott said.

Even if it appears more dangerous than the average bear but hasn't hurt anyone, it will be destroyed, he said. But, he said, there will be no mass extermination of bears.

"The people that want us to shoot all the bears in town, that is unreasonable," Sinnott said. "We don't kill bears in retribution. We try to examine each case."

Thomas Wood, a longtime Eagle River resident, said Anchorage's approach to bear management is "nonsense."

"They should shoot all the bears in town," he said. "Now they are coddling the bears so people are getting hurt. It is so stupid. The inmates are running the asylum."

Sinnott is not going to abandon old themes.

"I am still going to hammer on people about garbage this year," he said.

Last year, the city replaced more than 20 municipal trash containers in municipal parks with bear-resistant cans. This summer, the city plans to replace industrial trash bins with bear-resistant cans in areas where there are restaurants and apartment complexes.

For the first time, people who improperly dispose of their trash will be fined instead of being issued warnings. Fines for a first offense range from $50 to $300, up to $600 for a second offense.

Phillips said that's not enough. People who live in neighborhoods frequented by bears need to be required to use bear-resistant trash containers.

Paul Jenkins of Eagle River keeps a shotgun loaded with bird shot within easy reach to prevent a 300-pound black bear that hangs around his house from killing his dog. The bear has never been aggressive to Jenkins, but has bluff-charged some of the neighbors walking their dogs.

"I am not going to let him eat my Schnauzer," he said.

I love it ow folks forget that they do live in AK.

The hypocrasy is amazing, the huggers and clueless city folks say we cant go after the fuzzy bears and they keep on building homes deeper in bear country. then they start to wank cuz of the wildlife.

Ever since last summer, I have been shaking my head in amazement at this city.

Me thinks its time for some folks to move back to there safe cities outside.

I'm in South Central Louisiana. For the last fifteen years or so, the "save the Louisiana Black Bear" campaign has been going strong. Now there have been three bear sightings inside Lafayette's city limits in the last year.

People have been watching Disney movies too much, where wild animals are characturized as kind, and friendly. People buying into that chit are dumber than a stalk of bananas.

quote:

Originally posted by Joel/AK:
I love it ow folks forget that they do live in AK.

The hypocrasy is amazing, the huggers and clueless city folks say we cant go after the fuzzy bears and they keep on building homes deeper in bear country. then they start to wank cuz of the wildlife.

Ever since last summer, I have been shaking my head in amazement at this city.

Me thinks its time for some folks to move back to there safe cities outside.

X 2

Maybe they should build a wildlife border fence?

Brett

Bart saves the cute brown bear cub from the big bad cougar.

http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.s...the%20cougar%20scene

If you kill the bears that come into Anchorage, will the rest learn not to enter town? Or will there always be new bears wandering in and people moving into their habitat? Or I'm assuming too much.

quote:

Originally posted by sputster:
If you kill the bears that come into Anchorage, will the rest learn not to enter town? Or will there always be new bears wandering in and people moving into their habitat? Or I'm assuming too much.

.

Their habitat .. , They got a title to that land , pay rent on it ?????? People go someplace ,guess what ,it is theirs , why ? because they are people not animals .....Not everyone on this forum swallows the earth first BS lock stock and barrel ..... Any that do ,,what would they need a gun for? And therefore any semblance of a logical reason to be on Accurate Reloading ..

Bears start finding dead bears laying around and human scent in the vicinity and those bears when they are done eating will usually scram ..

quote:

Originally posted by sputster:
If you kill the bears that come into Anchorage, will the rest learn not to enter town? Or will there always be new bears wandering in and people moving into their habitat? Or I'm assuming too much.

It seems to me that bears into Anchorage would be similar to any other city or town with bear habitat all around it. I know of no success in training bears where the town limits start. In Hoonah for example, there's a fresh crop of youngsters every year, even though a few were killed off the previous year. Occasionally an old bear will start lingering and visiting the smoke houses, taking hanging deer, killing chained dogs, eating garbage, and just generally acting like he owns the place.

Most likely the older bear is a habituated dump bear, gone bad, and the youngsters just don't know any better. Seems to me that the youngsters take up town visitation because of the food source and absence, usually, of the old boars who would kill a youngster if he could catch him.

In my opinion a dead bear has little influence on whether another bear learns something from the death, except maybe a cub witnessing his mother shot. If a dead bear is left long enough, and the eagles and ravens don't eat it all first, another bear will eat it.

So killing a bear is not a deterrent to other bears. It merely removes a problem bear, and makes room for another one to move into the void.

Sincerely though, where does this ideology of Earth Last – People Foremost at all cost Imbalance come from? The places in the world where they don’t have similar problems with bears is because the surrounding habitat doesn’t support bears, and/or they have all been killed off. Alaska is unique in that we have habitat, and lots of bears. Do the Earth Last/People First folks want to diminish what makes Alaska special? Is the kill-them-all mentality balanced somehow in their way of thinking? I’m serious – I’m really trying to understand how they think.

KB

Tell Mary to go back to California or wherever she came from. Don't let the "city people" ruin the "last good place"


My two cents,

Chuck

Hello,
I lived in Eagle River, AK during the late 70's and until '87 and things must have changed. Pepper spray and shotguns w/ bird shot!! I don't think so. My home was very near the entrance to the "park" and often hiked, camped, visited just to enjoy the wilds of Alaska and yes, there were numerous bears, but always carried sidearm and rifle of suffecient caliber to protect myself and family. Seemed like everyone visiting the park was armed and it was legal then, but now I don't know. The ranger would issue you bells to tie on to your boot strings to alert whatever you were there????
I am naturally glad I did not have to kill a bear for I was told even though you were protecting yourself there would be a whole bunch of questions and complete investigation if you did do so. The bears, black or griz, aren't going to go away and if you choose to live in the Great State of Alaska, then it is a fact of life to tolerate whatever wildlife is there. Moose were in my backyard often and even though I had built an 8' sturdy wooden fence, they would lean against it and snap those 8"x8" posts like matchsticks. Should mention that the Ruger Blackhawk 44mag. was at best a noise maker, not really what you wanted to stop a charge. Made me feel better though. Never had a high regard for the Anchorage Times back then and my opinion has not changed. California is probably a good suggestion, but even better would be for those trying to change Alaska, try "taking a walk in the park..."

MFD, things havent changed, you can still legally carry.

The problem is society, not the bears. they want to do the blame game.

that teenager that got mauled last summer during the biking event for instance. it wasnt the bears fault. what the hell were the contestants, parents and promotors thinking having a race along a salmon creek in bear country????? but it was the bears fault

Why cant folks use that thing that God put between there ears, commonly called a brain.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Kabluewy:





So killing a bear is not a deterrent to other bears. It merely removes a problem bear, and makes room for another one to move into the void.
That has not been my experience .
Sincerely though, where does this ideology of Earth Last – People Foremost at all cost Imbalance come from? The places in the world where they don’t have similar problems with bears is because the surrounding habitat doesn’t support bears, and/or they have all been killed off. Alaska is unique in that we have habitat, and lots of bears. Do the Earth Last/People First folks want to diminish what makes Alaska special? Is the kill-them-all mentality balanced somehow in their way of thinking? I’m serious –[[[[[[ I’m really trying to understand how they think. ]]]
Why ????????????,.
There have always been ,at least 2 types of outdoor users ....... Those who lived and worked in the outdoors . and those who work indoors but recreate in the outdoors sometimes ... .. The indoor workers have often done their best telling the outdoors men .. how to live their lives so they "the indoors men " could go play and actually have something to play with ...... in a place where they want to go play ......... The outdoors men usually don,t g a f what the indoors men want and mostly will tell them so ...........

However since there are getting to be fewer and fewer outdoor workers who don,t pander to the tourists ,,,,no doubt the indoor workers will be able to enact more restrictive measures against the outdoor workers so they don,t sully the play area with things like clear cuts , mines , oil fields , pipelines , pulp mills ..... All of which provide a very viable income to the outdoors men and their families which consist often times of children who the outdoors men don,t want getting killed by a pos bear ...................................... And eventually not even any people who don,t think ..[ earth first ]

Well Gumboot ...when all the manley men are left to their own devices things like extinctions and deforestation seem to follow in short order. Bison - Toast. The "State Bear" of California (you know the one on the flag) - extinct. Of course, when manly men decide to be developers then they're really dangerous.

Regarding the topic at hand - bears go where there's food - no food no bears. Anchorage has a people problem not a bear problem. Interesting dichotemy though.

You guys can keep all those beatniks but we'll take your extra bears. The Mountain Lions and Coyotes can't seem to keep the Chihuahua population in check.

Make a deal with you Macifej, well send you the people. I would rather keep the bears.

we got some wolves that need a new home we could send to sweeten the pot with

I was wondering - once upon a time I sold a few loads of firewood, and over the years I have used my share of T.P., so does that qualify as outdoor work, or does it only count if I did it in the woods like the bears do? I mean really, I want to be qualified to have an opinion before actually having one.

Incidentally, yesterday I saw two really big black bear boars on the hillside.

KB

quote:

Originally posted by Joel/AK:
Make a deal with you Macifej, well send you the people. I would rather keep the bears.

we got some wolves that need a new home we could send to sweeten the pot with

Send your loser leftists to the Northeast from whence they originated. Send your Wolves to us...I've got 3 Yorkies, two Chihuahuas, and a Min-Pin in the neighborhood that need some attention...maybe I'll start a Rent-A-Wolf Service ...

Or we can send them to roust out the bears. We could arm them with pepper spray, bear bells and fill up their backpacks with peanut butter and honey sandwiches so they don't get hungry ...



Chuck

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Macifej:
Well Gumboot ...when all the manley men are left to their own devices things like extinctions and deforestation seem to follow in short order. Bison - Toast. The "State Bear" of California (you know the one on the flag) - extinct. Of course, when manly men decide to be developers then they're really dangerous.

Regarding the topic at hand - bears go where there's food - no food no bears. Anchorage has a people problem not a bear problem. Interesting dichotemy though.

.

But Mac . SO What that there are no [ golden grizzleys ] No doubt the guys who were trying to make a living before the days of welfare and food stamps and bail out money wanted to eat their own cows , or sell them , or build their own wealth . Not get hung up on some BS earth worship ... The grizzly was a problom , they solved the problem ......I salute them .. Men of vision ... Men like Ben Lilly .... tho he wasn,t in Calif. that I know of .,., Just because some brite spark like Tom Cruise blathers on about the environment , doesn,t mean he isn,t talkin s -- t........ Weather he thinks he is or not ... The Aussies did the same with the striped wolf from what I understand ,, Good on them mate .......... The ? to kabluey is ,, did he go kill a bear he had the chance to ???And if not , WHY...

Oh and as far as deforestation ,,,, I guess you have never been to Southeast ...

quote:

I guess you have never been to Southeast

I'm from the southeast.

What town .or village ?

quote:

What town .or village ?

Are you suggesting I might be provincial Mr. Gumboot ...??

.. No , if your from Southeast , then what town , Hyder- Skagway , well Yakatat .. Thats what Southeast is to an Alaskan ... The Panhandle , the Alxander,s Archapeilego ........Southeast Alaska ,, This is the Alaska hunting Forum ... As an Alaskan who hasn,t been south in 27 years ,I naturally refer to the forests of Alaska , and in this case those of Southeast , where the trees grow back so thick and so fast that you can,t walk or hardly even climb ect. thru a clear cut 15 years after it has been logged ..

The other Southeast Gumboot ...

..... Spring board country ...It would be fun falling those

Open a gd hunting season on those bears and things will change. Last year they held the first brown bear hunt in Chugach state park, gave out a total of 3 permits....and I had one of them.
I know there were no bears taken and I spent a good 20-25 days scouting and hunting those bastards, closest I got was about 400 yards from one in my buds plane. Now I see they are giving out 10 and they estimate the population to be over 60 brown bears. This hunt wasa joke when I hunted it, they really limited it to where I could hunt but now they've expanded it some but I still don't see how it;s going to help. If they want bears taken then they need to have a fall hunt as well and open the park to black bear hunting. Chugach State park is crawling with them.

quote:

..... Spring board country ...It would be fun falling those

Endangered - no cutting allowed. Seems several hundred years of cutting nearly wiped them out. Go figure ...the old lumber is like gold - only reliable source is demolition of condemed structures.

John, its amazing how F&G thinks. I got into it with the bio in Tok about the predator control tag in unit 20.

so many rules and he even admits it wont work and hasnt.

They tie your hands but yet they say they are making an effort.

I'd like to head up there and see your bears some time.

I'd like to feed them fresh berries and salmon filets, pet them, and maybe even ride one like that guy on TV ...

You know I have absolutely no sympathy for these fools. If they don't like it they can pack their shit and hit the road. A native I used to work with in Dillingham had a profound answer for all complaints about living in Dillingham "There's a plane leaving every day". Enough said. Problem solved!

If they want to live in bear country they need to adapt to it. Others do. As mentioned in the article a requirement for bear proof trash containers is a great start. Electrify your yard. It works. During times of high bear traffic run your kids back and forth from the bus/school/whatever. Adapt, move to a condo in town or a better idea is to just leave. Alaska is too special a place to have people living there that want it to be like Seattle.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
You know I have absolutely no sympathy for these fools. If they don't like it they can pack their shit and hit the road. A native I used to work with in Dillingham had a profound answer for all complaints about living in Dillingham "There's a plane leaving every day". Enough said. Problem solved!

If they want to live in bear country they need to adapt to it. Others do. As mentioned in the article a requirement for bear proof trash containers is a great start. Electrify your yard. It works. During times of high bear traffic run your kids back and forth from the bus/school/whatever. Adapt, move to a condo in town or a better idea is to just leave. Alaska is too special a place to have people living there that want it to be like Seattle.

Mark

Even better.....shoot every bear that comes onto your property to seek trash......eventually only bears who want nothing to do with humans will be left. No need to complain to anyone.....just take care of business. Humans are here to stay.....bears need to find their place again....even if it takes a little reminding.

I grew up in NJ and now live in NH.....a buddy called me the other day and said a huge black bear was in his backyard......he called LE and COs with no satisfaction.....he has a 3 year old and 3 older kids that play out there all the time......NJ has eliminated the bear hunt to satisfy the liberal garbage.......again, a gut shot with the 30-30 ought to solve the problem for now......inhumane, sure....but the bear will die in the woods somewhere and he won't get thrown in jail for protecting his kids when no one else will.

OK.....let me have it.

quote:

Alaska is too special a place to have people living there that want it to be like Seattle.

Norton,

I must say you have a well thought out plan for bear control. I only see one problem. What if before mentioned bear goes off wounded, encounters some wood fairies on a nature walk and kills them? Let's even go futher and imagine the incident is investigated, a 30-30 slug recovered, a neighbor remembers Norton shooting the other day, the law enforcement remembers Norton's bear control policy that he has been so verbal about and bing-bang-boom your in jail for murder. Brilliant!

Being originally from Maine I can almost assuredly guarantee that you would get little sympathy from long time New Hampshire residents if you complained about the bears after moving there from New Jersey.

I lived with bears on or near my property for over 20 years in Alaska on pretty much a daily basis from June-Oct every year. Once in awhile a bear does need to be shot. Myself and my neighbors adapted to living with the bears and shooting them on sight is not the way to go.

Mark

It more than amazes me, it pizzez me off that Adam Henrys live in homes costing in excess of 1/4 million $, and they won't spend the money on a bear proof container to manage their garbage, effectively baiting the bears. And they bitch that their yappy snauzers might become a casualty, a problem which a little obedience training and/or a short leash would cure. At least it would be something done in the right direction, and it would not only deter bears, but affect attitude and the level of humility needed to live near bear habitat, rather than the arrogance and stiff-minded attitude of some.

I firmly support laws with serious consequences to those who bait bears with their garbage or their snauzer. Some people simply have to be told the right thing to do, by law, in a democratic society, when they insist on doing something, claiming personal rights and property rights, that have a negative impact on their neighbor.

If they will never appreciate balance from the perspective of nature, (created by a higher power, or at least something bigger than themselves) then perhaps they will understand balance in a democratic society, (created by humanity) when they balance their check book after writing a check for the fine, which could have gone a long way toward a bear proof garbage container, or for the fine from gut shooting a bear, or the balanced perspective of looking through bars from the inside out.

KB

quote:

Originally posted by Kabluewy:
It more than amazes me, it pizzez me off that Adam Henrys live in homes costing in excess of 1/4 million $, and they won't spend the money on a bear proof container to manage their garbage, effectively baiting the bears. And they bitch that their yappy snauzers might become a casualty, a problem which a little obedience training and/or a short leash would cure. At least it would be something done in the right direction, and it would not only deter bears, but affect attitude and the level of humility needed to live near bear habitat, rather than the arrogance and stiff-minded attitude of some.

I firmly support laws with serious consequences to those who bait bears with their garbage or their snauzer. Some people simply have to be told the right thing to do, by law, in a democratic society, when they insist on doing something, claiming personal rights and property rights, that have a negative impact on their neighbor.

If they will never appreciate balance from the perspective of nature, (created by a higher power, or at least something bigger than themselves) then perhaps they will understand balance in a democratic society, (created by humanity) when they balance their check book after writing a check for the fine, which could have gone a long way toward a bear proof garbage container, or for the fine from gut shooting a bear, or the balanced perspective of looking through bars from the inside out.

KB

Absolutely Correct.

Don't misunderstand that I have no problem with hunting bears, or shooting a bear that was endangering or just big trouble and wouldn't act normal and go away. The problem I have is with the people who bring the trouble with bears on themselves with their behavior and attitude.

There's a difference in a bear just wandering through, compared to one that's habituated to garbage eating, and hanging around too much. If they are not welcome, then they need to know it's much easier in their life to go somewhere else. But setting garbage out for dogs or bears to get into, or intentionally gut shooting a bear is just not acceptable behavior.

KB

KB I agree with you, but unfortunately, thats the problem. it all boils down to our lazy, finger poinintg society.

pisses me off but what can we do with it? The Muni changes rules so people dont get there feelings hurt but in the long run, it hurts us.

Folks have got to learn to take responsibility for there actions.

You mov e to bear country, guess what, your gonna have bears. Be smart.

quote:

Originally posted by Kabluewy:
Don't misunderstand that I have no problem with hunting bears, or shooting a bear that was endangering or just big trouble and wouldn't act normal and go away. The problem I have is with the people who bring the trouble with bears on themselves with their behavior and attitude.

There's a difference in a bear just wandering through, compared to one that's habituated to garbage eating, and hanging around too much. If they are not welcome, then they need to know it's much easier in their life to go somewhere else. But setting garbage out for dogs or bears to get into, or intentionally gut shooting a bear is just not acceptable behavior.

KB

Perhaps my response was a bit emotional, but I don't think that a suburban NJ, heavily-populated town should have to worry about bears tearing up their garbage OR carrying off their children from their own backyard. If you think I'm all about gut shooting bears you're wrong......the point being that you WILL go to jail if it dies in your yard, regardless of the threat to your kids and the lack of response from LE/COs.

Any of you familiar with Ramsey, NJ? That would be a VERY suburban town 25 miles outside of Manhattan(population 8 million). Do you know the response my brother got when he called the police when the bear was in his backyard(the house I grew up in)last year? "Don't worry about it, it'll wander off, we've been getting calls for the past couple of days."

Ramsey IS NOT Alaska folks......and if you want to put words in my mouth about not communing with bears in the middle of Bergen County, NJ then kiss my ass because you're not thinking straight.

I haven't been on a bear hunt yet, primarily because shooting one over bait doesn't strike me as particularly challenging(other than being selective). Either way, I'll probably book one next fall with a friend of a friend in northern NH.

And again, you won't catch me complaining about bears to anybody up here in NH.

I'm not into communing with bears either, or allowing them to take children from their back yard or anywhere.

I'm wondering - did the bear just wander off as predicted?

KB