Wildlife

Forest Service workers kill charging brown bear near Sitka

U.S. Forest Service officials say two employees used a service weapon to fatally shoot a charging brown bear near Sitka last month, the area's third such attack by a sow in August.

Sitka radio station KCAW first reported the Aug. 27 incident, along Appleton Creek on Chichagof Island roughly 30 miles north of Sitka.

The shooting occurred just 10 miles from the Sitkoh Island Trail, where two UnCruise Adventures employees guiding a group of 22 cruise-ship passengers on a hike were mauled Aug. 18.

Sitka Ranger District chief Perry Edwards said Tuesday that the Appleton Creek shooting closed out a month that also saw another brown bear sow killed, in an Aug. 7 encounter near Nawaksina Sound. During that incident, reported by the Daily Sitka Sentinel, hiker Don Kluting said he had to fire multiple rounds from a .44 Magnum handgun to stop the bear just feet before it reached him and a companion.

Edwards said the identities of the two men involved in the Aug. 27 incident, who were checking fish passes farther up the creek, weren't being released. They were carrying a large-caliber .375 H&H Magnum rifle, supplied by the Forest Service specifically for bear defense.

"This is what we train people on; this is what we certify people on," Edwards said. "If you need to go to a lethal means, you don't want to undershoot a bear."

Hunters handling bear carcasses in the area often find wounds from other firearms that the animals had survived, Edwards said. As a result, the Forest Service certifies its field staff to fire three shots in 10 seconds against a bear at varying distances, with strict requirements for accuracy.

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"Two of the three shots have to be in vital places on the bear," Edwards said.

On Aug. 27, Edwards said the men were moving through the area, scanning the woods for bear activity, when they saw the sow roughly 50 yards away. The bear immediately ran into foliage on its way to the men, who were able to anticipate where it would emerge as one of them prepared to fire.

When it did emerge, Edwards said the men had very little time to react.

"When that bear came out of the brush it was about 30 feet away," Edwards said. "From the moment (they saw the sow) to the first shot they fired at this bear, they estimated it at four seconds."

The men spotted two cubs in the area after the bear was killed.

Tom Schumacher, a management coordinator with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the men had retrieved and submitted the bear's hide, paws and skull in accordance with state policy on bear shootings in defense of life or property.

"They bumped into a bear and the bear charged 'em," Schumacher said. "The bear made the choice to charge them rather than retreat."

The second man had a can of bear spray, but the shooter made a judgment call Edwards considered accurate under the circumstances.

"The person with the rifle didn't feel that that was going to be effective, and I support that 100 percent," Edwards said.

The shooting was a rare event for the Sitka Ranger District, Edwards said. Employees have spent "tens of thousands of hours" at sites on Baranof Island, with the last shooting of a bear by an employee occurring in 2001.

The Forest Service went public with the details of the Appleton Creek shooting to emphasize what officials consider an unusual trend for the area.

"This is not normal in Sitka to have this many incidents," Edwards said.

Schumacher, at Fish and Game, called the three August incidents too small a sample on which to base any definitive conclusions about their underlying causes. Edwards said a low pink salmon run this year or a relative abundance of cubs could be causing greater stress among sows defending food stashes or their offspring.

In the meantime, staff at the service's Sitka office have been briefed on lessons from August's encounters. As the Southeast Alaska hunting season begins, Edwards said the main lesson from his workers' experience is the value of "situational awareness" in keeping their eyes up to look for bears while walking.

"Don't look at where your feet are," Edwards said. "(Looking) 10 yards ahead of you, 50 yards ahead of you potentially saved their lives."

This story has been updated.

Chris Klint

Chris Klint is a former ADN reporter who covered breaking news.

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