Posted on 08/23/2009 11:27:15 AM PDT by mylife
Soldotna mans brush with bear too close for comfort By Joseph Robertia | Peninsula Clarion
Last Sunday a fourth brown bear for the year was killed in a defense of life and property (DLP) shooting, and there is no mistaking that it was the former, not the latter, that was on the line for the man who shot it.
"I'm not trigger happy, and I wasn't looking for trouble," said Greg Brush, in regard to the incident that took place along Derks Lake Road, off Mackey Lake Road, outside of Soldotna.
The morning started casually for Brush. He had the day off from guiding king fishermen on the Kenai River, and with hunting season fast approaching, he decided to take a walk to start getting into shape.
"My wife and kids had other stuff to do, so I went alone and took the dog," he said, referring to his German shepherd.
In addition to his canine companion, Brush also decided to take a handgun -- a Ruger .454.
He was fortunate he did, but Brush said it was more than luck than made him opt to carry the pistol. It was a recent history of run-ins with brown bears -- as many as 13 last summer, and several already this season -- that made him decide to take protection that day.
"I've had a bear greet my wife at the base of the front steps, popping it's jaw from 10 feet away. In broad daylight. I've had a sow and two cubs chasing my dog on the front lawn, and had two cubs walk past the kids on the trampoline. And, recently I had bears pull down my bear-resistant garbage can," Brush said.
Back on April, 18, 2005, a jogger also was mauled by a brown bear, roughly 400 yards from where Brush had the run-in with his brownie. All of these factors played into him packing a pistol, but he said he still thought he would never have to use it.
"I just never thought it would happen to me. It's one of those things you just always think happens to somebody else," he said.
However, less than a quarter of a mile from his home, Brush heard a twig snap behind him. He whirled his head around and saw a huge bruin burst from the woods less than 20 yards away. It moved straight for him.
"It came with zero warnings. There was no woof, no jaw popping, no standing up. It just had its head down, ears back and was in a full charge," he said.
Brush's dog was roughly 50 yards in front of him when the bear made it's move, and it ran home frightened. Brush was on his own, and he said he didn't have time to think. He just instinctively reacted.
"I drew my gun and just started shooting in its direction. There was no time to aim. I don't know where the first shot went, but I think the second or third shot hit him. I rolled him at about five feet away," he said.
But, the bear had so much momentum behind him from the full charge, that once it rolled over from being hit by the 350 grain bullets, he still slid several yards across the gravel road, and just a couple of feet from Brush.
"He skidded to a stop about 10 feet beyond where I was shooting from. I actually side-stepped him and fell over backward on the last shot. His momentum carried him past where I fired it from," he said.
"From the time I saw him, until he skidded past me it was seconds, and I'm not exaggerating or fabricating anything," he added.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game investigated the incident and confirmed the scenario played out just as Brush described. They also were able to glean information about the bear, which may have led to it making such an aggressive move toward Brush.
"It was a big boar, roughly 15 to 20 years old, but in poor body condition for this time of year. He was very thin and had significant tooth wear," said Jeff Selinger, area wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Beyond these biological attributes, Selinger said it is difficult to pinpoint the exact reason the bear may have charged, although he pointed out that often bears that have lost their fear of humans have done so by gaining food rewards associated to humans.
These could include improperly stored garbage, the contents of unsecured freezers, food for pets or livestock not properly cleaned, salmon eggs left out to cure for bait or bird seed left out all year, just to name a few.
However, Brush was emphatic that he and nearly all his neighbors work hard to minimize bear attractants.
"Over the past few years, we've taken every precaution possible to reduce or avoid this real and severe bear problem," he said.
Again, Selinger confirmed Brush's statement, for the most part.
"I've been by Greg's place several times and he keeps a very clean area, but a lot of times people doing things right pay the price for people doing things wrong. There have been attractant issues in this neighborhood in the past, and this area is a popular spot for people illegally dumping fish carcasses, so I'd almost guarantee that within a five mile radius of where this occurred there are attractants, and five miles is just a few minutes' walk for a bear," he said.
Brush said he was angered to learn this fact, particularly since if true, someone else's negligence could have contributed to him quite possibly losing his life.
"It's frustrating to learn that some lazy person on Strawberry Road, or Sterling, or wherever, could be contributing to my problem," he said.
Selinger said he is equally frustrated by the matter, and Fish and Game is trying to address this issue though a myriad of methods, of which pubic education is among the most important.
"We're going in the right direction with people understanding and making reasonable efforts to minimize attractants, but we still have a long way to go. To make this work, it is also important for people to make it clear to their community leaders that this is an important issue to them," he said.
Selinger cited Kenai, Homer and Seward as leading the way in taking steps to reduce conflict between humans and bears. These communities are involved in the Wildlife Conservation Community Program, which utilizes grant money and in-kind donations to inform residents on how to live safely in bear country, and to purchase or off-set the cost for bear-resistant garbage cans and Dumpster lids.
Soldotna also is working toward becoming a Wildlife Conservation Community program member, and Cooper Landing and Hope have similar bear programs in place.
However, Selinger said this is still not enough.
"We'd like to see this message go boroughwide," he said.
This most recent bear shooting brings the number of DLPs for the season up to four. The first DLP of the year was an adult male killed at a black bear baiting station off Swanson River Road on May 21, but Selinger could not comment further because the incident is still under investigation.
The second DLP was a subadult bear that was killed near the community of Sunrise, off of the Hope Highway, on June 25. The sex and details of this bruin's death also are unclear at this time, since the person who shot it took the salvaged carcass to the Fish and Game office in Anchorage, rather than Soldotna.
The third one was a yearling male euthanized June 26 by Fish and Game near a dwelling at the end of Denise Lake Drive, off Mackey Lake Road. The animal already had been injured. It was suffering from a gun shot wound that went unreported by whoever fired on the bruin.
In addition to these three DLPs, five brown bears -- one male and four females -- were killed during the spring brown bear hunt.
These combined numbers are a stark contrast to last year when 40 brown bears died as a result of human caused mortalities, of which 31 were DLP shootings.
As to the nine brown bears that died as a result of human-caused mortalities in 2008 that were not related to DLP shootings, one was hit by a vehicle while crossing the road, two were killed during legal hunts, two were shot by black bear hunters who misidentified them, one was a bear euthanized after it was reported and found to be mortally injured, one was a cub euthanized after its mother was shot and a home could not be secured, and two bears were found shot dead and never reported to Fish and Game by the shooters.
Joseph Robertia can be reached at joseph.robertia@peninsulaclarion.com.
You need this for the dingos http://www.robarm.com/XCR_Gallery.htm
This might be 100! I have seen big cat here, theres one near you I am sure ( there are deer up there, there are probably cats...)...Give bear another 15 to 20 years and they will be back ( NEAR DFW )
>>>> Here in Alaska, carrying a hand gun while out for a walk, where a bear encounter could happen is just plain common sense. <<<<
I recall reading about some guys salmon fishing on the Kenai at the far side of the ferry, and a bear came charging out of that brush on the south bank, obviously to get the salmon carcasses laying on the ground.
One of the guys was said to have had a 12g with a pistol grip slung on his shoulder, and he was able to get one shot off but very badly, completely missing the bear but loud enough to scare it, so it turned and ran back into the scrub.
And from what I recall this was in the height of combat fishing season (i.e., now) and it was pretty crowded (as it was when I was there).
Also a guy was bitten on the butt the day before I arrived at the Cooper River NF Campground just up the hill from Russian River. The NF rangers told me he was just walking to his campsite and crossed the path of a sow and two cubs and that was that. They said he wasn’t hurt too badly.
When I was in Denali at Teklanika River campground we came back from hiking one day and there was a minor emergency because TWO 400 - 600 pound grizzlies were traipsing through the site and had apparently come from the rear which was MY SITE with our two TENTS pitched! We slept in my SUV that night.
I’ll NEVER go tent camping in Alaska again, it’s too damned nerve wracking! ;-)
But I can’t wait to get up there again, next time I’ll rent an RV!
Never seen a deer in Hunt Co. Oh, they are there in the river bottoms.
All I ever see is Bobcats and Coyotes.
Seen LOTs of deer in hill country
“combat fishing season” L0L! dont get me started L0L
Fuzzy wuzzy fesses up !
lol! my dings hang out while I shoot! Won’t do any good! I need to get them some earmuffs!
And, when an armed person is confronted by a bear 60 feet away, you would bet on the bear?
>>>> bear scat was discovered that smelled like pepper and had little bells in it... <<<<
Ha ha, yes, there are many variants of that one.
“The dinner bells are for a serving of peppered hiker” etc.
A friend of mine went backpacking in Banff some years ago and came back with a whole bunch of bear attack humor like that.
I spent some time in Denali and would NEVER go backpacking there either, I just don’t understand the appeal. My black bear encounters in the northeast USA and the US Rockies have been quite enough of a thrill, thank you very much.
Hmmm. They sound thick as theives
One of my Dad’s old geezer buddies just retired to Soldotna, it’s not really “the wilderness” although obviously it has wild bears from time to time. And good salmon fishing.
>>> Wyo. has stepped up and allows open carry while bowhunting this year. <<<<<
I thought Wyoming was always open carry, nd I definitely remember seeing guys carrying openly when I was last there.
Or do you mean while bowhunting only?
Yes, yet another story, in Cody at a sporting goods store the owner was telling me about one of his customers who was mauled while hunting somewhere up there north of Cody, apparently the bear wanted his kill.
I went backpacking in Denali once. It was pretty nice. I had so many mosquitos on me that they practically carried me away and my pack felt light as a feather...
I will never forget this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke swattin flys L0L
I get to swinging that fishpole like a whip! people back off..
“oops! sorry! Oh that was my bad..”
Pitiful. There aint room out there for man nor beast
Wow, it wasn’t very crowded in those images compared to what it usually looks like.
That guy was the sh@t! He went in there thinking, “ Ok, I’ll do this for 5 or so years and get out...” He ended up staying for 30 or so! Just Awesome! He even had a ‘pet’ magpie! I wonder if he had some whiskey or beer flown in?
Dunno. He was like over 80 when he before he decided to call it quits.
He did have “tobasco” shipped in L0L
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