I spent last spring and summer working for the USFWS as a BioTech conducting
bird surveys throughout SE Alaska. As a new employ I --WOWW -- HOLLY SHIT!
STOP THE PRESS- AS I BEGAN WRITTING THIS MESSAGE, I STOPED TO NOTICE THE 15 OR
SO JUNCOS AT THE BIRD FEEDER DIRECTLY OUT MY WINDOW AND A COOPERS HAWK FLEW
SKILLFULLY THROUGH THE BRANCHES OF THE TREE AND NAILED ONE (A JUNKO). Anyway
back to bears (this is a bear discussion list..isnt it?) New employees were
required to take a two day bear safety course which was excellent. The usfws
in AK has a committee who investigates all bear encounters with their
employees and they decide what the official deterrents and training will be
used. The first day was a indoor class and we reviewed bear habits, reading
bear behavior, potential deterrents, and most importantly how to prevent
situations from occurring. The approved deterrents were flare guns (to scare
a bear away from your camp), portable electric fences (to keep bears from
scratching at your tent at night), air horns (to honk before you enter sketchy
areas like the village dump or alder thickets), and a 12-gauge pump shotgun
with a rifle sight and magnum slugs (to be used only if the bear charges).
Bear spray was not used because you cant fly with it (you have to fly
everywhere in AK and the can could explode in the plane, blind the pilot, a
big problem!) and its effectiveness is questionable (a fellow technician was
attacked by a Griz 3 times in a row as she continually sprayed it in the
face). We spent the second day at the firing range trying out the various
deterrents and qualifying with the shotgun. The targets were life size
posters of LBO's (large brown objects or brown bears; the government has to
give an acronym to everything) which were set-up on rolling carts. Your
partner would run behind you with the rope attached to the cart so the bear
would charge you from fifty meters. You would then place three large holes in
the chest of the charging poster to qualify as a gun "carrier". I'm an avid
bear lover and it would destroy me to kill something so remarkable as a bear.
The training was excellent and I think the result is that fewer bears would be
killed by paranoid idiots with guns. Learning the prevention was most
important. I believe it would be wrong to carry a gun for grizz protection in
the 48...theres just too few of them..it should simply be a risk you take for
the sake of true wilderness.
My partner and I were to survey nine areas across SE AK, mostly in the Tongass
NF. We went to Ketchican, Juno, Craig, Angoon, Hoona, Wrangell, Sitka, Kake,
and Petersberg spending about 4-5 days at each place. The idea was to get
backcountry and off trail point-counts to compare with BBS data, which
generally comes from roadsides. We usually split up and hiked or bushwhacked
alone in areas without Brown Bears. When we were in places with lots of
brownies, like Admiralty Island, we hiked together; one person carrying binos
and the other carries the Shotgun (usually me cause I was the better shot).
People on this list wonder how to simultaneously watch birds and be prepared
for a bear attack, simple...take a partner..one looks out for trouble, the
other looks at birds, then switch occasionally. We never had a sketchy
incident that season.

Despite the disgusting over abundance of clearcuts and logging roads in the
Tongass NF (Dude! I mean it was bad! Completely trashed! No sense of respect
for the land or the future at all! Take a plane flight over Prince of Whales
Island to see USFS management at its best they are angels compared to the
native corporations who cut right to the ocean edge and across riparian
zones...No more commercial logging on public lands!!! Support "The National
Forest Protection and Restoration Act"in congress) I did have some nice run
in's with some beautifull wild animals. One day while I was hiking through an
alpine zone near Petersburg I walked face-to-face into a very large Grey Wolf.
We both stopped about 15 meters from each other and just stared for about 10
seconds while he/she slowly turned around, looked backed over its shoulder,
and slowly walked away. My heart about jumped out of my chest and I started
howling for him to come back. I saw black bears often and they just ran away
except at the dump where they didn't care, seemed dangerous, and looked
horrible. It was disturbing to see bears, Bald Eagles, and Ravens hanging
around the dregs of society appearing to be on the same cycle of dependence
that say.. homeless folk on the streets in cites submit to. Their pelts and
plumage unkept and the spark gone from their eyes. I wanted to see some Brown
bears b/f the season was up and on the last day I got my wish. We were
walking down a logging road and there was a brown in front of us. We stopped
to look at it through the binos. Then we heard hair-raising growls from the
clearcut/now blueberry patch beside us. It was a brown bear fight. Two more
browns, apparently siblings, were beating the hell out of each other in plain
view 40 meters away. Blood flying from their mouths. It went on for about a
minute and then we sneaked back the way we came, got in our FS rig and drove
away...still trembleling.

-Chris W./ Olympia