If You Care About Chilkoot River Bears

March 17, 2008 at 11:04 pm

If you have ever made your way to Haines, Alaska chances are you’ve tried to get in some brown bear viewing. The bears usually come out mornings and evening when the salmon are running to feed on the carcasses along the narrow, unregulated, Chilkoot River corridor. Anyone with even half a conscience has thought are we loving these bears to death and this is surely unsustainable. I won’t get into the issues associated with human-bear interactions because I’ve written about it before and the following website covers it far better than I. 

The website (www.geocities.com/chilkootbear/index.html) is a must-read for all Yukon anglers wanting to fish in this amazing country. It features bear viewing guidelines, a Chilkoot check-list (for anglers and bear-viewers), a list of press on this topic, and an interesting body of Masters research on this topic…and more.

If we want to keep getting invited to our neighbours and we want to share this with our kids we should take the following to heart (from the website):

CHILKOOT CHECK LIST

Here’s a checklist to help you monitor your effect on Chilkoot habitat and wildlife.

WILDLIFE WATCHERS:

Do not approach, follow or feed bears.

View bears, eagles and other wildlife from a distance, preferably from the road or from you vehicle.

ANGLERS:

Stop fishing if a bear is near you. Reel in your line and wait until the bear is gone.

Clean fish in the river and put the remains in swiftly moving water.

Secure your fish as soon as possible, preferably in a cooler in your car.

Avoid disturbing fish spawning areas.

EVERYONE:

Help keep river banks clean and intact.

Use restrooms and bear-proof trash cans at the lake.

IMPORTANT ALASKAN LAWS

It is illegal to harass wildlife (5 AAC 92.080)

It is illegal to feed bears (5 AAC 92.230)

It is illegal to intentionally or negligently attract bears with food or garbage (5 AAC 92.410)

Thanks to Adam for sending this link.

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