To Keep and Arm Bears

For the second time this summer, a public trail has been closed due to bears.

Earlier this year, Anchorage closed the Rover's Run trail in Far North Bicentennial Park due to the threat of bears along the streams.

Now, Chugach State Park officials have closed the paved public trail along the Seward Highway, about 25 miles south of Anchorage, because grizzlies have been lunging at hikers and bicyclists.
Read the story here.

A local radio host has referred to this as the first time humans have been controlled by "an unorganized group of bears."

I can't imagine why no one has simply done the obvious; there are two solutions here. This is Alaska, not Massachusetts or New Yawk. Whose feelings are we trying to placate? It's not like we don't have 587,000 square miles that they can use. Why should we cede a quarter-mile stretch of bicycle path to them?

Yes, bears have been around far longer than humans ... but not these bears. Maybe their many-times-greatgrandpa was, but let's be clear on this: we have the right to be here, too.

Having said all this, let's assume that hikers who know nothing about bears have been trudging, blissfully unaware, through the woods in the park - and a bear has scared the *$&@ out of them. It happens. Sometimes you can do all the right things, and still have a violent run-in with a wild animal.

Maybe I'm missing something, but closing the trail seems awfully Left-Coastish to me. If the bears are peaceable, relocate them. If they're aggressive, deal with them accordingly.

Or we can just let them continue to play in traffic on the highway, and amongst the bikers on the trail ... until they cause something worse than a "scare."