RESTORATION WORK – Father Herman Belt keeps an eye on Lincoln Street traffic this morning as workers use a Snorkel Lift to pull rotten pieces of trim from the facade of St. Michael’s Cathedral. Several pieces recently had fallen off the cathedral, which dates to 1976, causing concerns about other pieces possibly falling off and hitting pedestrians. Belt says the plan is to fabricate new wooden trim and properly flash it. East bound traffic was diverted up American Street during today’s work. Contractors may close the street again Wednesday morning. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Police Shoot Bear in Sitka Neighborhood
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
A brown bear rummaging through garbage was shot and killed near Sitka High School early Sunday morning in Sitka’s first bear shooting of the year.
Steve Bethune, Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game area management biologist, skins a brown bear in the back of a pickup truck this morning outside the ADF&G office. The bear was shot by Sitka Police early Sunday morning near the intersection of Monastery and Sirstad streets after getting into trash. A record fourteen bears were shot by authorities last year, all lured into town by unsecured garbage. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Sitka Police received a call at 11:42 p.m. Saturday reporting a bear near the intersection of Sirstad and Monastery streets, about half a mile north of downtown. By the time Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Steve Bethune arrived around 1 a.m. Sunday, police officers had killed the bear, Bethune told the Sentinel today.
“They called me and said there was a bear that had been killed and it was apparently a pretty crazy night for the police, so they had to roll to a different call... But by the time I got out there, the officers were able to help me load him into the truck,” Bethune said.
The mature male bear was the first one killed in Sitka this summer.
“The bear sounded like it was being very aggressive and (the shooting) sounded very justified,” Bethune said. “The bear was actively eating trash when it was killed, so I wouldn’t describe it as a DLP (defense of life or property). (That’s) more like an imminent threat to your life, whereas myself and other agency people, the police department have a little more flexibility to take care if we deem it to be a public safety concern. And this one had been acting aggressive enough early that evening, basically immediately preceding getting shot.”
All told, four shots were fired, he added. At least two struck the animal – one bullet wound was visible on the bear’s high shoulder area, with another wound in the head.
While this bear was the first killed in Sitka so far this year, it comes after a record year of bear incidents in 2021. In all, a record breaking 14 bears were killed in and around Sitka last year.
Sunday’s bear was likely defending a trash pile it had accumulated, the biologist said.
“It’s trash. This bear, my guess, had decided that there was enough trash in that neighborhood to start defending it like a bear in the wild would defend moose kill or something like that… There was more than one house in the neighborhood with trash out,” Bethune said.
Police later Sunday issued citations at three Sirstad addresses for having bear attractants.
Bethune estimated the bear was 8 to 12 years old and otherwise healthy, with a sizable layer of fat.
“It’s a normal amount of fat… I like to check the fat layer because people will ask me if it’s in a very poor condition or was just really hungry. That’s almost always not the case,” he said.
The carcass will be disposed of at the Jarvis Street transfer station, he said.
On Friday, Sitka National Historical Park announced that bear risk along the popular, riverside walking route was “moderate,” and signs are posted at trail entrances asking walkers to use “extreme caution.” Park trails were closed for months last year because of concerns about bears in the area.
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20 YEARS AGO
April 2004
Photo caption: Sitka High students in the guitar music class gather in the hall before the school’s spring concert. The concert was dedicated to music instructor Brad Howey, who taught more than 1,000 Sitka High students from 1993 to 2004. From left are Kristina Bidwell, Rachel Ulrich, Mitch Rusk, Nicholas Mitchell, Eris Weis and Joey Metz.
50 YEARS AGO
April 1974
The Fair Deal Association of Sealaska shareholders selected Nelson Frank as their candidate for the Sealaska Board of Directors at the ANB Hall Thursday.