“Bear-Human conflicts can lead to injury or loss of like for both humans and bears. Conflict between bears and humans must be minimized to ensure that bears retain natural habits and optimize longevity and reproduction, and to protect people and property” (Bear-Human Management Plan 10).

In most National Parks, including Glacier Bay, there is usually a Bear Management Plan, unless the Park is located outside of bear habitat. I have always found these plans to be somewhat funny on the surface. I mean, it is a whole document written so people know how and what to do in case of bear interactions. There are good interactions, bad, dangerous, life-threatening, and so forth. I think for me it’s the idea behind the plan, not the plan itself, which I find comical. The idea that, we as animals, have forgotten how to exist in wilderness areas with other animals.

This plan is in place mostly to keep bears protected from humans. I can’t argue that is a bad thing. As we have forgotten how to interact with animals, we continue to perpetually harm them. Every time you have a bear interaction, it shouldn’t be a nice one for the bear. This is how they become habituated, and that leads to the destruction of the bear, or the bears death at the hand of fish and game managers.

There are three parts to the his plan; Preventive Management, Responsive Management, and Information Management.

Preventive Management is the Park’s regulation for preventing harmful bear encounters and keeping heavily human used areas bear free. Although 90% of Glacier Bay’s visitors come via cruise ship and never set foot on solid land, there are still 600-1600 visitors who camp in the park. The Preventive Management portion separates the park into 6 zones:

  1. Bartlett Cove Developed Area
  2. Bartlett River
  3. Glacier Bay backcountry
  4. National Preserve, Dry Bay
  5. Alsek River
  6. Gustavus

These zones each require various levels of different preventive measures, as each zone is heavily to barely used by humans. The more human populated areas are Bartlett Cove Developed Area, Gustavus, and possibly Bartlett River, have different management goals than say the back country area.

“Preventative Management is the first and most important step toward minimizing bear-human conflict. Food conditioning can be a contributing factor to bear-human conflicts and bear-caused human injury in national parks” (Bear-Human Management Plan 10). There is one rule that everyone who spends time in bear country knows; do not feed bears. It doesn’t matter if it is intentional or accidentally left out. Bears who are being fed by humans will continue to come back to the same human inhabited area. This increases the risk of negative encounters for humans. Those areas in Glacier Bay where human use is heavy, the first preventative measure is securing all food and food scrapes. This includes garbage, as bears will climb into dumpsters or knock over trash cans.

Other measures include Bear encounter training for all back country permit seekers, use of Bear Resistant Food Containers when camping or hiking in the back country, and the use of Bear spray not guns for safety. “There is no scientific evidence that carrying a gun increases safety by minimizing the chances of a bear attack” (Bear-Human Management Plan 20). In fact, Glacier Bay advises that you carry bear spray and have it on the ready, not a gun.

The second part is Responsive Management. This section is a guide on how to handle various bear encounters, and the proper response from the park. The first part of responsive management is the implementation of the Bear Information Network. The primary tool of dissenting information using emails. Every bear encounter is documented and sent out to various people who need the information.  To save some time I will not go through every part of responsive management, this is after all a 103-page document.

The part I want to highlight is what corrective actions are taken if and when there is a bear encounter. The first action taken is to issue a bear advisory to all people in the area. The second part is monitoring the bear to see what kind of interactions it displaces with humans. The third step is area closure. The fourth step would be to use hazing or averse conditioning. The fifth step is an on-site bear hard release, where the bear is captured in the area it is occupying and released with large amounts of negative reinforcement; they will use rubber bullets, cracker shells, projectile, or Karelian Bear Dogs.  The sixth action taken is translocation, the bear is captured and then released elsewhere in the park. The final step taken is called destruction of the bear, or killing the bear. This list will not always be step by step; the GLBA bear committee could jump from 1 to 8 or 2 to 4 depending on the encounter. If the bear kills someone out of a predatory action then it will almost always be destroyed.

Bear-Human Management plans are inherently important to keep bears safe from humans. As we encroach on the habitat we force our presence upon the bears. The hard part is teaching humans about bears and dismantling false narratives surrounding the aggression of bears. Bears will either act out of protection or predation. Both behaviors have different responses. The important part is being aware and educated to both behaviors.

Being and partaking in wilderness adventures is always an exciting moment. The one thing you should always know, is what kind of bears (if any) inhabit the area you will be visiting, and how to properly handle bear encounters. The best way is to make plenty of noise and keep a large group of people with you! Respect the area and know that bears are wild and love a large personal bubble.