By Bill Sherwonit
When word got out last October that Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard had been killed and partially eaten by one or more brown bears at Kalfia Bay on the remote Alaskan coast, the news flashed across the United States in the frenzied way it does for tragedies involving celebrities. Within hours, the horrifying deaths of the self-described eco-warrior and his girlfriend were being reported on national newscasts. And for months afterward, Treadwell's behavior - and legacy as a celebrated grizzly bear advocate - was analyzed and debated in the media.
The deaths brought increased national attention to Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, which supports the continent's highest concentration of brown bears. Over the past decade, growing numbers of people have mingled with Katmai's bears, and at least a few have gotten close enough to touch, or be touched by, these coastal cousins of grizzlies.
"The word is out that these animals are very tolerant of humans, and we're hearing more and more reports of people doing outrageous things around them," says Tom Smith, a U.S. Geological Survey brown bear researcher who has visited the Katmai coast nearly every summer since 1992. "Some, like Timothy, believe they're on a kind of spirit quest, but at least a couple [of] people with doctorates in wildlife biology have also gone out and touched bears. It's weird stuff, and it's dangerous. What's amazing to me is that somebody didn't get nailed before this."
Most bear experts agree that such up-close behavior is at best risky and at worst recklessly unsafe, endangering both people and bears. "By getting so close, people are altering the behavior of these bears," explains Smith. "They're setting the bears up for future conflicts with humans."
Katmai has had a "distance rule" in place for years to keep visitors from getting too close to bears and other wildlife. In its current form, the regulation prohibits people from approaching within 50 yards of a bear or remaining within 50 yards of bears that come near them to feed on concentrated food sources such as salmon, berries, or a carcass.
Although Treadwell's death may or may not affect the park's management policies, it has crystallized some issues surrounding bear and human interactions that have become growing concerns. For now, at least, the number of people who insist on getting dangerously close to bears remains small. In the long run, human crowding and uncontrolled camping on Katmai's remote beaches pose the greatest risks to brown bears and the habitat they depend on for food, shelter, and family rearing.
As recently as the late 1980s, few people visited Katmai's coast, some 250 to 300 miles southwest of Anchorage. Remote and costly to reach, it is also frequently battered by storms that roar in from the Gulf of Alaska. Things began to change in 1989, following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, as cleanup crews and spill-assessment teams were assigned to Katmai's distant shores.
Homer resident John Rogers, a former commercial fisherman, was among those hired to transport and house crews. Working there, Rogers could see the area's bear-viewing potential. In the early 1990s, he began taking photographers and adventure travelers to Katmai's bear-rich bays. He had little competition until late in the decade, when interest in seeing the coastal bears exploded. One of the first to fly customers to the park's outer reaches, Bald Mountain Air owner Gary Porter saw his Katmai bookings jump from a few dozen per year in the early 1990s to nearly 700 a summer by mid-decade.
By the late 1990s, a fleet of air-taxi operators based in Kodiak and Homer had joined Porter in hauling people across Shelikof Strait and Cook Inlet. A few of their passengers were campers, but most were happy to spend a few hours among the dozens of brown bears that feed on sedges or fish for salmon.
The number of air-taxi operators rose steadily through about 2001 but has since leveled off or even declined slightly. Nowadays, fewer air taxis are taking people to Katmai's coast. But Becky Brock, Katmai's chief of concessions since 1998, says bear viewing continues to increase. In 2002, 26 companies reported that they'd guided 1,937 people on Katmai's outer shores, the majority of them in two spots: Geographic Harbor and Hallo Bay. Fortunately, the pilots-who double as guides-are, by all accounts, doing an excellent job of policing themselves. Largely through Porter's efforts, there is even a Katmai Service Providers Association, which promotes cooperation and sets bear-viewing standards for its members. And cooperation among the businesses and park staff is better than ever. "A lot of that is because of Betty Brock," Porter says. "She reached out to us, opened up lines of communication that hadn't been there, and emphasized the idea of partnering."
Relations have also improved between the National Park Service (NPS) and the state of Alaska, which has jurisdiction over coastal lands below the mean high-tide line. In the past, some guides would keep their clients below that mean high-tide mark, because state regulations aren't as restrictive as the national park's. Working together, the Department of Fish and Game and NPS have developed a "Best Practices" document to guide bear-viewing activities on both state and federal lands along the Katmai coast and the rest of Cook Inlet's western shore. Its intent is to limit adverse impacts on bears and their habitat, while making the most of visitor opportunities to enjoy bears and learn more about them. Finally, says park Superintendent Joe Fowler, "we can speak with one voice."
Just about everyone likes the "Best Practices" guidelines, as far as they go. But as Jim Stratton, NPCA's Alaska regional director, points out, compliance is voluntary. "Right now, all the businesses have agreed to follow them. But what if you get a rogue operator who decides he's not going to? You need some sort of enforcement. The Park Service must aggressively pursue individuals who violate the rules . . . It's clear that bad human behavior will result in dead bears. Almost always, it's the bears that lose."
And even with the newfound cooperation, beaches sometimes get too crowded, especially at Geographic Harbor and Hallo Bay, the two most popular spots. Biologist Tom Smith says Hallo Bay is popular with both campers and day visitors. As recently as 1995, he says, almost no one went there. Now on some days, boats and planes crowd the bay. "It can be a dangerous place to fly," Smith says. "I've seen 60 people there at one time, and it's not a big place. People are bunched up along the stream. It's got to be disruptive to the bears."
Fowler says the park is monitoring use along the coast, particularly at Hallo Bay, but there are no plans at this time to restrict visitor numbers. More worrisome to Fowler are the growing numbers of coastal campers. Until now, people have been allowed to camp wherever they wish, and an alarming number have chosen to place their tents in, or near, prime bear-feeding habitat (such as the sedge flats at Hallo Bay) or along trails frequently traveled by bears. Treadwell was camped along such a heavily used bear route in Kalfia Bay the night he was killed.
Besides increasing the risk of surprise encounters-and the possibility of attack-such camping may disrupt the bears' feeding patterns and, over time, degrade the flats. It also boosts the odds that bears will learn to associate people with food. And whereas day visitors mingle with the coastal browns for several hours every day, campers have an around-the-clock presence that magnifies their impacts.
For several years the Park Service has required Katmai coastal campers to move their camps at least one mile after seven days at a site. In theory, this regulation discourages long-term campouts along the coast. In fact, it has resulted in something resembling musical chairs. Several campers spread widely across a beach simply rearrange themselves every week or so. Campers are also required to secure their food.
The growing presence of campers has been greatest at Hallo Bay, a protected, cup-shaped inlet with expansive sedge flats, where up to 50 or more bears may congregate during peak feeding times. The flats are also important travel corridors and are used for courting, mating, and rearing of young. In 2001, a group of bear researchers led by Tom Smith visited Hallo Bay to identify and discuss key management issues. Among its many recommendations, the group emphasized that "visitors should not be free to choose just any campsite location . . . the NPS should consider establishing a designated group campsite."
Though such a site would present some challenges, the researchers agreed its benefits would far outweigh any costs. The group has submitted a summary of its recommendations to Katmai staff, and its members hope the report will lead to changes in how people are managed along the coast. "These are things that need to be done," says John Schoen, the senior wildlife scientist for Aubudon Alaska. "You just don't see many places like this anymore. We can't afford to blow it here."
Although Fowler admits camping is a concern, at this point, Katmai's managers are not ready to restrict campers to specific sites. "When you designate an area, you incur some obligation in managing it," Fowler explains. "Right now, we just don't have the resources. Plus a designated campground often becomes something of a sacrifice area; at this point we're reluctant to do that. Instead, we'll try to keep people from monopolizing areas important to bears."
To that end, the Park Service is proposing to close Hallo Bay's core meadow area to all camping from May 15 to July 15, when dozens of bears gather there to feed on sedges. Camping will still be permitted on the bay's north and south ends, Fowler notes.
Though he applauds the Hallo Bay camping closure, Stratton, among others, worries that the Park Service may be moving too slowly in other ways it manages the coast. "We need to make changes now in how we manage people," he says. "The Katmai coast is a place where we have to put the bears and their needs first."
Anchorage nature writer Bill Sherwonit is the author of ten books about Alaska, including Alaska's Bears: Grizzlies, Black Bears, and Polar Bears.
