Twice now while out looking for Beaver in the overflow channels this year I have seen a Black Bear out at the flood control area. I had mentioned this to the guys in the H&R forum a couple of weeks ago. Chena Lakes campground and park, is part of the Flood Control Project. I did not try and shoot the bear due to my carrying a .17HMR at the time. Also I was on the Campground side of the dyke where hunting is not permitted (I have a special permit from F&G to shoot Beavers). If I had been carrying my 30-06 it would not have been hard to lure the bear up and over the dyke, but I was not interested, too much time would have been involved. I told the Army Corps people about seeing the bear. I am sure they had told the Chena Parks people as well. Now it seems the bear is becoming a problem. The Army Corps guy told me I should have popped it anyway, and I did give it some serious consideration. Since I was behind locked gates in an area closed to the public, and no one but them and I have keys to the gates, no one would ever have known. Here is the article in todays paper. I'll talk to the biologist today and the guy running the park. They will probably ask me to go out and see if I can locate it tonight. Time to check the batteries in the Fox Pro.
FAIRBANKS — A bear shreded a tent at an empty campsite at Chena Lake Recreation Area on Monday evening and returned several hours later to rock a small RV back and forth while a person was inside.
Borough recreation area manager Matt Steffy was still trying to gather details about the incident on Tuesday afternoon, but rangers had posted signs at campgrounds, on trails and other areas of the park warning visitors there was a bear in the area.
Steffy still wasn’t sure if the bear was a black or a grizzly, but the fact witnesses saw it climb a tree hints that it is likely a black bear, according to state wildlife biologist Don Young at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks. Judging from some of the reports, a few tracks that have been seen and the claw marks on the tree, it’s a big one, Steffy said.
“We’ve got some pretty good claw marks going up the tree,” he said. “It may be a pretty large black bear.”
The bear visited an empty campsite in the river park campground about 6:30 p.m. and shredded a tent and the pillows and sleeping bags inside it, Steffy said.
The bear also got into some garbage or food that had been left out, though Steffy didn’t know what it was because he had yet to talk to the campers or the Alaska State Trooper who responded to the scene.
“They’d left the campsite and came back to find their stuff shredded,” he said. “The tent was clawed through, and all the stuff inside — pillows and sleeping bags — were tore up.
“I’m not sure what they had out (in terms of food or garbage) but there was something there,” Steffy said.
The campers initially reported the incident to some firefighters who were fighting a small wildfire at the recreation area. Troopers were called to the scene, but the bear was gone by then, Sgt. Scott Quist with Alaska Wildlife Troopers in Fairbanks said.
The bear evidently returned about five hours later on the other side of the campground and rocked a small RV back and forth. The camper inside, a woman, recognized what was happening and honked the horn. The bear climbed a tree before leaving a short time later.
The woman, who is from out of state, told Steffy “it was a black bear that was a large one that looked brown.” She was rattled by the incident but not enough to prevent her from spending another night or two at the campground, Steffy said.
Quist said there’s a good chance the bear wasn’t rocking the RV but rubbing up against it because it’s shedding.
“At this time of year, when they’re shedding, they scratch on just about anything they can find,” Quist said.
Steffy and Quist hope the bear doesn’t stick around the popular recreation area, especially with Memorial Day weekend coming up this weekend.
“If it comes back tonight we’ll come up with game plan,” Quist said. “If it continues to show fearlessness we’ll have to take action. Hopefully it’s just passing through and isn’t a local resident.”
Park rangers were talking to campers and picnickers on Tuesday reminding them to use caution and to clean up their camps and garbage so bears aren’t attracted, Steffy said. They were also handing out bear safety pamphlets to campers, he said.
“We haven’t had any (bear) issues in the campgrounds for a couple years,” Steffy said. “Hopefully this isn’t the start of something.”
On another bear note, Young said he received a report Tuesday morning about a possible bear sighting near Cushman Street bridge in downtown Fairbanks.
Young said he and fellow biologist Tony Hollis scoured the riverbank near the foot bridge where the bear was reported seen and “found no evidence whatsoever” of a bear in the form of tracks, scat or digging. Neither had a security guard at Doyon Ltd. seen any sign of a bear.
It’s “highly unlikely” that a bear could have made it that far into Fairbanks and back out again with only one sighting, Young said.
Even so, Young said this is the time residents need to be “bear aware” and keep garbage and pet and livestock feed secured and cleaned up so bears aren’t attracted to it.
Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Bear roaming Chena Lake area causes concern for wildlife officials
