FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
The future of management and operations at the Perform [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
The Sitka Sound commercial herring sac roe fishery continued today with open [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
After storming into the state 3A boys basketball brac [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
The Queen Bees’ spotless season record ended Tuesday night with a 2-1 loss [ ... ]
By SHIRLEY SNEVE
Indian Country Today
A major renovation at an Alaska museum to attract tourist [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
A presentation about a jump in the number of inmate deaths in [ ... ]
By NATHANIEL HERZ
Northern Journal
Tribal and environmental advocates calling for a crackdown o [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
March 26
At 2:10 p.m. a man e [ ... ]
Big Rigs Sought
For April 13
The 3 to 5 Preschool’s spring fundraiser and Big Rig event is happening [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The city’s reassessment of taxable real estate, alo [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
The third opening in this year’s Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery was held Mon [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Sitka High’s Lady Wolves bounced back from an openi [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel ports Editor
Competing in the state 3A basketball tournament in Anc [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
Playing in a competitive division City League volleyball game Monday evening [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
A bill that passed the Alaska House of Representatives on Monday [ ... ]
By NATHANIEL HERZ
Northern Journal
Gus Schumacher, the Anchorage Olympic cross-country skier, a [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
Alaska’s rural schools are on track to access faster interne [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
In the language of the Gwich’in people of northeastern Alaska, [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
March 25
At 7:48 a.m. a calle [ ... ]
Vietnam-Era Vets
Invited to Lunch,
Commemoration
American Legion Post 13 will host a luncheon 1-3 p.m. [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
The 2024 Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery got under [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Assembly will start the annual process of determi [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
Competing in the 3A state championship title basketball game Saturday, the M [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
Playing through the afternoon Sunday, City League volleyball teams faced off [ ... ]
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Fortress Better Than the Average Bear Den
By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
To quote the indelible park bear Yogi, “I am smarter than the average bear...”
It should be added that Yogi did not, however, possess the intelligence to seek shelter at Fortress of the Bear, the Sitka bear sanctuary that is at the forefront of research, rehabilitation, and, someday, the release of rescued bears back into the wild.
Above: Lucky, one of the resident brown bears at the Fortress of the Bear, goes for a swim this morning. The Sitka Chamber of Commerce was told at its meeting Wednesday that the bear habitat at the former APC mill site is being expanded. Below: Evy Kinnear co-founder of the Fortress of the Bear, speaks at the Sitka Chamber of Commerce noon luncheon Wednesday at the Westmark Hotel. (Sentinel Photos)
“We are super excited for the impending tourist season,” bear manager Claire Turner said following a presentation at the Sitka Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday. “We are getting ready to be open, hopefully, in early May, although construction is construction. We are excited for people to see the changes and we will hopefully have some info-graphic signs to show folks where Fortress is going. We are super excited about those building expansions. It is such a shame we will not have them ready for this year, but we are ready to continue to fundraise for that.”
For this season, Fortress will open its new black bear enclosure, which adds roughly 10 times the space of the previous black bear habitat.
Les and Evy Kinnear started the Fortress in 2002 using two large masonry tanks left over from pulp mill days at Sawmill Cove, alternately completing habitat in each and then connecting them. The original occupants were brown bears, but with the addition of black bear cubs a separate 4,000-square-foot environment was created for them. Now those cubs have grown.
“We had considered for years the opportunity to take over part of the hillside behind us,” Les Kinnear said. “We had used it as kind of a buffer between us and the Blue Lake road.”
The Fortress acquired access to that property two years ago, and last year signed a long-term lease with the city. A road was made and construction began on an expansion of the black bear habitat. The entire hillside behind the current structure will be incorporated and the existing fence taken down to allow the bears to roam into the trees and vegetation.
“It is a much larger and more natural environment for them,” Les Kinnear said. “That is a very brushy hillside and that is the beauty of it. Under those circumstances the state has agreed to consider allowing us additional black bear cubs. Right now they are simply shot because there is no place to send them. We would be able to rescue several more bears for our permanent exhibit.”
Fortress currently has seven bears. The oldest, brown bears Chaik and Killisnoo, are 11 years old. The youngest are five-year-old black bears Smokey and Tuliaan. Fortress sent three bears to the New York Bronx Zoo in 2009, one to a Texas wildlife sanctuary in 2010, and one to the Montana Grizzly Encounters in 2011.
“Our ultimate objective is to develop a remote property where we can bring little orphaned bear cubs to raise remotely until they are big enough to take care of themselves and put them back in the wild,” Kinnear said.
Several potential sites have been viewed, including areas in Kenai Peninsula, Denali, and Southeast.
Kinnear hopes to establish a project similar to British Columbia’s Northern Lights Wildlife Society, which he said has been releasing bears (over 400 black and grizzly) back into the wild for 25 years with no negative impact on game populations.
“We are always pestering the city, state, and the feds over different parcels to try and do that,” Kinnear said. “The responses are mixed.”
Also for this season the foundation is being finished for a new $1 million Fortress visitor center. Fortress hired Seattle architect Chris Goad to design the center and after the last cruise ship leaves this fall the foundation will be finished. In 2019 work will start on the new facility with ground floor window viewing space, an expanded gift shop, an upstairs viewing area with floor-to-ceiling windows, event space, more deck space, and educational classroom space. The new facility increases the current 400 square feet to just over 2,800.
Turner and the Kinnears say an improved center will attract more visitors, which will aid Sitka’s economy, and also be a more healthy bear habitat for the Fortress’ long-term residents, Ursus-cartoonus Yogi notwithstanding.
“The bears are always excited,” Turner said, “If they knew what was coming, oh my goodness!”
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....