Black bears typically don’t show up in Petersburg to dine on the town’s trash until fall, right before hibernation. But despite expectations, a couple of bears have already been pawing through garbage bins this summer.
Local authorities have identified the specific bears as a problem because of their destructive and aggressive behavior, and plan to lethally remove them.
But it’s not a long-term solution. Bears can smell trash from miles away.
Not every bear that wanders through town is what the state calls “food conditioned.” So a bear getting into garbage doesn’t always make it a concern.
Sgt. Cody Litster is a longtime Petersburg resident and Alaska Wildlife Trooper.
“In general, they’re just a nuisance,” said Litster. “And we don’t always just eliminate our nuisances. Sometimes we have to find ways to work around them.”
However, it becomes a public safety problem when the bear returns regularly and shows aggression.
Authorities have identified a couple of bears in Petersburg that are demonstrating such unsafe behavior that they can now lawfully, lethally remove them.
However, authorities stress that they don’t take such measures lightly. Litster said not only is shooting a bear outside of hunting season illegal, it’s extremely dangerous.
“The most dangerous thing about taking an animal inside city limits isn’t the animal itself… it is releasing a deadly instrument in a neighborhood,” he said. “Shooting a bullet in town … is vastly more dangerous than a bear hitting someone’s garbage during nighttime hours.”
Stray bullets can travel for over a mile and still be deadly. Because of the lack of safe backstops for discharging lethal rounds in populated areas, Petersburg Police Chief Jim Kerr said officers resort to nonlethal measures when responding to a bear report.
“You can’t kill it because you have to plan for, what if that bullet was to go through? What if there was a miss? What if something happened? So there’s times you might see the bear, but there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said.
Kerr noted that nonlethal measures have become ineffective for dealing with certain black bears in town that are creating “costly and unsafe conditions.” In early August, he proposed a resolution to the borough assembly, alerting the need to lethally remove “nuisance bears” from Petersburg that destroy cans and show abnormal or aggressive behavior. It failed. But the Petersburg Borough Police Department, Alaska State Wildlife Troopers, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) already determined the identified bears were a problem, slating them for removal.
“At some point, we’ll get an opportunity to dispatch the bear, but I wish they would just learn and move away,” Kerr told KFSK after the resolution was shot down.
Local police and state wildlife agencies coordinate heavily when it comes to handling bear mitigation efforts each year. ADFG encourages the community to be mindful of bear activity from April to November.
Area Wildlife Biologist Frank Robbins said there are several steps outlined in ADFG policy that come before the state would call for lethally removing a bear.
“That’s addressing the symptom. That’s not addressing the problem,” said Robbins. “The problem is providing wild bears with human food. And so … therein lies the solution, right? Remove that attractant.”
Wildlife experts warn that a bear rewarded with trash is likely to continue returning for more. That’s why authorities stress that garbage should be properly secured.
Garbage can be stored inside a shed, garage, electric fence or even frozen until pickup day. Residents have the option to drop off trash for free at the town’s baler facility under bear-related circumstances. The borough’s Public Works Department also provides free ratchet straps so residents can tie down their trash can lids.
Petersburg has laws about proper garbage storage to prevent attracting bears to town. Residents can get fined if no reasonable effort is made to secure their refuse.
During his career managing wildlife in Petersburg, Robbins said he has seen bear reports decline as people take measures to remove attractants.
But Robbins stressed that some residents still need help —and alternatives.
“I do have concerns that there are folks here that don’t have garages, or they don’t have outbuildings, or a place that they can secure their garbage,” Robbins said. “They’re left with using that wheeled curbside plastic container as their principle garbage storage device, and even if you retroactively fit those with a ratchet strap, there’s still no barrier to a determined bear.”
Petersburg currently does not have bear-resistant garbage cans. The borough isn’t planning to purchase any because of equipment conflicts and cost, though officials say they are continuing to weigh their options.
Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht said the borough could plan to buy more metal dumpsters, which have plastic lids that aren’t technically bear-resistent, for neighborhoods with higher volumes of bear reports. But there is only one garbage truck in Petersburg capable of unloading those containers, and Giesbrecht said it would require coordination for residents in the surrounding area to decide where it would be placed.
“Does somebody want to volunteer their property on a block?” he said.
Giesbrecht said bear-resistant garbage containers are costly, and getting them could bring additional costs for staff and potentially a new collection truck.
Wildlife organizations helped the Southeast Alaska community of Haines cover the cost of getting bear-resistent containers for over 100 residents this year. In 2020, Haines law enforcement killed 30 brown bears.
Giesbrecht said the Petersburg Borough would “definitely be open, within reason” to a similar partnership. But for now, he encourages residents to use the borough’s free baler option and bear straps.
“Doesn’t cost anything to do that right now, and we know it will work. May not work on every bear, every time, but it’ll work most of the time. So let’s try the easy step first,” he said. “I don’t think any of us want to have to shoot a bunch of bears. But we also don’t want trash spread everywhere and create another year’s problem with the bears continuing to get used to getting into trash.”
While authorities look to legally and lethally remove at least the identified problem bears from town, they ask residents to coordinate with neighbors, remain mindful of how garbage is stored, and continue pursuing a collective effort to remove bear attractants from Petersburg.
“No one likes to pick their garbage up more than once,” said Trooper Sgt. Litster. “And people do get unnerved when they see bears and get woken up by bears. And so it is frustrating, but hopefully people will respond, and the community will respond, both on law enforcement, the borough … everybody has to work together to get over this.”
ADFG has online resources about living with bears in town.
