Anchorage Daily News

Bears versus people: Can't we just all get along?

No.

To state the obvious: We are drastically different.

Bears walk on all fours and live and scavenge for food in the woods. Humans have developed sophisticated food delivery and preparation methods. We also choose to co-habitate in the safety of others in cities.

In the process, we have organized our modern shelters into urban centers that include schools, roads, commerce centers, parks and other luxuries. We also have a democratic social structure that includes guidelines of human behavior (laws) with enforcement agencies to ensure compliance.

Bears operate under the laws of nature. They exist under a survival-of-the-fittest social structure with minimal species evolution. They don't apply technology for their benefit.

They do have one attribute that seems common to ours: They adapt to their surroundings. They have modified their behaviors and patterns to adapt to our environment.

The Eagle River brown bear is an example. She is teaching her young about their new urban environment.

We can't get along under these circumstances.

In a noble and heroic effort, our state Fish and Game biologists risked danger recently to remove a food store that a grizzly bear had stashed in an Eagle River neighborhood. They didn't send the message that the bear had crossed the rural-urban divide. They didn't make the bear's environment prohibitive to future ventures. They reinforced the message that the grocery store is still open -- just shop in another neighborhood.

Chances are the next stop for this bear and cub will be at one of two nearby elementary schools. This tolerance of bears in our municipality is unacceptable policy from the Department of Fish and Game. The next blood on the hands of area biologists may not be from a moose calf.

As a maturing and modern city, we need to be proactive and modify our wildlife management policies to align with our development decisions. Our structure for changing this public policy is our democratic process.

As an elected leader, I have recently called upon the Anchorage Assembly to conduct a series of public forums through our Public Safety Committee to address this serious issue. For us to sit passively and hope the bears also do so invites more proof that we can't all just get along.

Bill Starr represents District 2, Chugiak/Eagle River, on the Anchorage Assembly.

ADVERTISEMENT