Anchorage Daily News

Many of us who live in Anchorage occasionally have bears in the neighborhood. That's not a call to lock and load, and the notion that we're going to hunt bears right out of town is both impractical and unpopular. So is the notion of Gentle Ben, the friendly bear.

The Anchorage Assembly passed an ordinance to hire a "bear technician" just as the bears began awakening and residents resumed last summer's arguments over bears in the city.

As yet, there's no money to hire such a person to manage -- or better, prevent -- conflicts between bears and people.

Meanwhile the city has put up some information on its Web site, www.muni.org., that provides advice and the means to complain if people are leaving trash or other bear magnets in neighborhoods.

What should be the policy here?

Public safety comes first. Occasionally we should close trails or parts of parks where bears are active. Yes, we're a city and a city is not the wilderness. But Anchorage also is unique in its proximity to wilderness and in having bear habitat within municipal boundaries. Citizens prefer to maintain that semi-wild part of the city, so we're going to make some accommodations for the bears.

Specific examples: Fish and Game has made a common-sense decision to close the Albert Loop Trail out of the Eagle River Nature Center when salmon are spawning, and that's sharply cut bear encounters. The same should be done in parks like Far North Bicentennial.

Public safety comes first. That means that sometimes city or state officials or individuals will have to kill bears in defense of life and property. We're equipped with opposable thumbs and firearms, and sometimes we have to use them.

Specific examples: A grizzly wandering down the Chester Creek trail near Valley of the Moon Park is likely to get shot. We're not going to risk a cyclist or child or anyone else getting mauled. Or, if a bear is identified as one that's charged or mauled people within city limits, officials should hunt it down.

This policy won't make the extremists happy -- not the people who want us to concede all ground to our ursine fellow sentient beings, nor those who want a bear-free zone from the foothills of the Chugach to Point Woronzof and from Potter Marsh to Peters Creek.

But this policy draws on one other advantage we have -- and the responsibility that comes with that advantage. Along with opposable thumbs and firearms, we're smarter than the average bear. Most of us have superior brains. Let's use them to manage the bears and our own behavior. We'll have less to fear and fewer reasons to shoot.

Go hiking and biking in and around Anchorage and there's a chance, usually slight, that you'll see a bear. It's part of living here, and most of the time it's a good experience. We can't take all the risk of those encounters away. But we can cut the risk with common sense.

BOTTOM LINE: Bear policy should put public safety first -- but that doesn't require banishing all bears from city limits.

ADVERTISEMENT