Bears are still raiding the Kodiak dump, weeks after a state plan to keep them out

Bears are still getting into the Kodiak Island Borough landfill weeks after the state approved a plan meant to keep them out. Borough staff blame the continued break-ins on "a constant attractant" at the site, which is a formal way of saying the dump is full of things bears want to eat.

The management plan names the culprit plainly: organic and food-related waste, especially the seasonal surge of fish waste and game scraps that pile up on Kodiak. That waste stream is the whole problem, and it's the primary focus of the plan's monitoring and controls.

This isn't a new fight. A state inspection last year found the borough out of compliance with the rule requiring landfills to keep bears out. The borough repaired and reinforced its electric bear fence, then worked with the state on a Bear Management Plan, which the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation approved July 15. Borough Manager Aimee Williams wrote that the plan's requirements are being met, but that "there continues to be a bear presence at the landfill due to the presence of a constant attractant."

Fish and Game's Kodiak bear plan documents the borough's long-running effort to keep bears out, counting about six bears using the site in a typical year, and as many as 11.

The state approved the plan with strings attached. "To reach the goal of no bears in the landfill, timely and effective corrective action must be taken," wrote ADEC's Annemieke Powers, who also asked the borough to clear bear habitat from inside the fenced area "as much as is feasible" and to call Fish and Game every time a bear is spotted.

The Assembly discusses the problem at a work session Thursday, with the state's environmental and wildlife agencies invited. Its Aug. 20 meeting includes a contract to install an interior electric fence around the active trash cell.