For the past couple years, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has been receiving reports of a big black bear rummaging through garbage in the downtown area. For just as long, he\u2019s been evading capture.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s kind of like a ninja,\u201d Stephanie Sell, a biologist with the department, told the Empire Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
During the time that she\u2019s been pursuing the roughly 300-pound bear \u2014 that\u2019s more than 60 pounds above the average weight of adult black bears \u2014 Sell has watched his stomping grounds change.<\/p>\n
For a time, he hung out near the Bergmann Hotel. Next, it was the area around the building that used to house Tracy\u2019s Crab Shack on South Franklin Street. Now, it seems he\u2019s hanging out at the Bergmann again, likely attracted by a large (and constantly growing) pile of trash in the hotel\u2019s parking lot.<\/p>\n
Several pieces of furniture, a couple TVs, three refrigerators and several other household garbage items have been heaped into a mound at the corner of Fourth and Harris streets, near the base of a staircase that runs up to the Starr Hill neighborhood.<\/p>\n
For about the past month or so, that staircase has also served as an access road into downtown for the big black bear whose first, and sometimes only stop in town, is the Bergmann trash pile.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of problems in that area,\u201d Sell said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s pretty typical for bears to frequent this portion of downtown, according to Sell. And the Bergmann\u2019s trash isn\u2019t entirely to blame. Bears live in the woods just behind Starr Hill \u2014 nestled up against Mount Roberts \u2014 so they don\u2019t have to travel far out of their comfort zone to find garbage here.<\/p>\n
The problem, she said, is that so long as they continue to find tasty trash, they aren\u2019t going to stop coming into town, even if that means forgoing hibernation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they continue to get rewards here, then they have no reason to go den,\u201d Sell said, explaining that the Bergmann\u2019s trash mountain is likely habituating this behavior. \u201cI certainly am a little concerned about the freezers and refrigerators out there because I know they probably did have food in them and that attracts bears.\u201d<\/p>\n
It certainly has. The other night, while walking in the area, I watched a black bear \u2014 possibly Sell\u2019s ninja bear \u2014 standing on its hind legs searching through the freezer of one of the refrigerators. It was as if he had a hankering for ice cream.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for the bear, the freezer was empty. After a few minutes, he sauntered up the stairs back to Starr Hill, huffing as he walked.<\/p>\n
Limited by the law<\/strong><\/p>\n Curbing the bear\u2019s trash addiction won\u2019t be easy, according to several city officials. Sizable though it seems, the Bergmann\u2019s trash pile is smaller than it has been in the past, said Rob Steedle, the director of the city\u2019s Community Development Department.<\/p>\n Steedle and Charlie Ford, the city\u2019s building official, have both been keeping an eye on the garbage pile, but there\u2019s not much they can do to get rid of it. Municipal code only allows the city to get involved if a person or business maintains a \u201cbear attraction nuisance.\u201d<\/p>\n Code defines such a nuisance as more than one-half gallon of any putrescible material, any organic material that has previously attracted a bear, soiled diapers, etc. Essentially, if you\u2019ve left food out or trash containing food out, you\u2019ve likely created a bear attraction nuisance.<\/p>\n The Bergmann trash pile doesn\u2019t contain food or other organic matter, though. And because it doesn\u2019t (yet) spill into the public right of way, the city can\u2019t clean it up or issue a citation to the hotel\u2019s owners. They\u2019re protected by another portion of city code.<\/p>\n \u201cBy code, you\u2019re entitled to have up to 200 square-feet of junk on private property, and it looks to me like that\u2019s significantly less, so we can\u2019t cite them for that,\u201d Steedle said.<\/p>\n Bob Dilley supervises all of the Juneau Police Department\u2019s community service officers. Dilley and his team of CSO\u2019s are typically the ones who are tasked with handling bear reports.<\/p>\n \u201cWe take the brunt of the calls about bears,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Dilley said the owners of the Bergmann are planning to clean the trash toward the end of next week. After checking out the garbage pile Wednesday, one CSO noted that there was nothing there that warranted a citation.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s a difference between something that will attract a bear and something that violates city code for doing so. The freezer, for instance, definitely attracted a bear, but it didn\u2019t have any food in it, so it\u2019s not technically at odds with city code.<\/p>\n A bear-y bad idea<\/strong><\/p>\n The Bergmann bear isn\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n Sell said that the Department of Fish and Game has been receiving more bear reports all over Juneau. This is fairly normal; it\u2019s just that time of year. Berries and other natural food sources have started to dwindle, and bears are in their final push to gain weight before winter.<\/p>\n What is atypical is how some people have behaved around bears that have wandered into town this fall. Several people recently walked up to a black bear eating garbage, so they could take pictures of themselves with it. They were within 10 feet of the bear, according to Sell, who saw some of the selfies after somebody sent them to Fish and Game out of concern.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a problem for me, and that\u2019s certainly a problem for the people near the bear,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s really dumb. I don\u2019t know what else to say about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than using their phones to take pictures of themselves \u2014 risking life and limb to do so \u2014 they should\u2019ve called the Department of Fish and Game to report the bear, Sell said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t do anything about bears if we don\u2019t know about them.\u201d<\/p>\n To report a bear sighting to the department, call 465-4265.<\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n Read more news:<\/strong><\/p>\n Central Council backs Murkowski<\/a><\/p>\n Juneau woman indicted for PFD fraud, others for burglary, theft<\/a><\/p>\n