Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

I am a resident of Quebec but I have been traveling to the Yukon and Alaska for the past 22 years. The highlight of these travels has always been bear viewing from the Chilkoot Haven along the Chilkoot River.

However, this past trip simply wasn’t the same — many tourists, and no park representatives in sight, leading to dangerous situations including tourists blocking escape routes for the bears to and from the river. Granted, the state’s parks division did a good job of redoing the road, making a platform for bear viewing, but such improvement is simply not enough to keep people from disturbing the bears, who need all the food and fat they can eat before hibernation and all the space they can have for raising their cubs. What I witnessed last August is that common sense is simply not happening.

Luckily, volunteers like Tom, Jamie and others do try to talk with some folks but most of the time, those people with cameras just shove them off. Unless I am mistaken, Chilkoot Lake is part of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources under state parks, thus, a park ranger should be present at all times.

This is a delicate subject to many especially written from someone out of your community, your state, your country but I have at heart the well being of all, including bears.