Questions for Wilderness Managers
Kootznoowoo Wilderness, Admiralty Island National Monument, Alaska
Background: Kootznoowoo Wilderness is located on Admiralty Island National Monument in southeast Alaska approximately 15 miles southeast of Juneau and lies entirely within the Tongass National Forest. Located on Admiralty Island, in the rainforest of Southeast Alaska, the Pack Creek estuary provides an unusual opportunity to observe brown bears as they feed on salmon during the summer months. There is no road access from the mainland to this isolated wilderness area.
Impact type: visitor use limits
Strategies: advanced reservations, limited entry access in part of the Wilderness
What we did
Managers limited the total number of visitors to Pack Creek to 24 people per day to minimize disturbance to brown bears. Placing limits on the number of daily visitors to Pack Creek provides an uncrowded experience for visitors. It is a day use destination. Camping is prohibited at Pack Creek but is allowed on a nearby island.
Why we did it?
To protect bears and also provide wilderness experience opportunities for visitors
How well did it work?
Limits have been well received by visitors and the local community. The continual presence of rangers ensures no more than 24 people per day arrive during the peak season and that people follow the rules. Bears have adapted to people who now behave more consistently.
How did you evaluate it?
Rangers monitor onsite to see how bears are reacting over time to human presence. Rangers are also monitoring the number of bears seen, how many visitors are approaching bears, and how many bears are approaching visitors. Negative interactions between bears and visitors is minimal.
Two different surveys have been conducted. 2001 onsite survey results indicated that visitors had a high level of satisfaction with their experience at Pack Creek. In 1997 a mail-out survey was sent to all permit holders that year. Returned surveys indicated that people were agreeable to visitor use limits and willing to pay the $50.00 permit fee.
What is the level of public acceptance?
Long time visitors to Pack Creek were concerned that the area not become a zoo-like setting. In order to protect the bears, people are willing to accept visitor use limits including permits, high fees, and vigorous schedules. Clientele largely come from visitors from the lower 48. Locals go other places where they have more freedom to do what they please with minimal intervention.
What did NOT work?
Wilderness managers think they have not been able to preserve the opportunities for a “wilderness experience” due to 24 persons allowed to visit Pack Creek each day, rangers checking visitors for permits, and rangers observing visitor behavior.
Pack Creek is a destination for tourists and has been promoted by the ecotourism industry. Restrictions on visitor numbers, where visitors can go, and monitoring visitor behavior around bears negates opportunities for “self discovery” for visitors wanting more freedom. Fifty percent of the visitors come with a licensed outfitter while the other 50% obtain a permit on their own with some coaching from the local Forest Service staff.
Wilderness is a secondary consideration for visitors. Bear viewing is the primary attraction. However, bears can serve as ambassadors for educating people about Wilderness. The needs of bears for large amounts of unaltered habitat and the lessons of self-constraint they require from human visitors mirror those of Wilderness areas in general. In this way, visitors who would otherwise know little about Wilderness, get a taste of it.
What would you do differently next time?
Act earlier to prevent problems between people and bears, and not allow anyone to trespass on the National Forest and establish themselves as the authority for that area. In 1934 the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed a mile-long trail to a tree stand overlooking Pack Creek. The next year, Pack Creek became a bear viewing area when the Territorial Game commission closed the drainage to bear hunting. The annual number of visitors was likely low during this time, perhaps in the dozens. A homesteader was allowed to settle there in the 1950’s. In 1981 there were 120 visitors to Pack Creek but by the mid 1980s visitation was up to 1,000 visitors per day. In order to protect the bears, visitor use limits was the obvious management strategy.
The interested public needs to be engaged in a collaborative planning process to build trust and help to develop management strategies. Participants have a tendency to be more invested in the outcomes through this collaborative planning process.
Any unexpected effects?
Managers were initially surprised by the amount of public support for increased regulation and charging the highest fees in the nation. In addition, bears have adapted well to the controls on human behavior which are a bit less restrictive than the tightly controlled McNeil Bear Viewing experience.
Tips
You have to have something as evocative or as threatened as bears to justify regulations and visitor use limits. You may have to sell what you really want on the basis of the animal if it helps you achieve your goals. It is much more difficult to preserve primitive recreational experience opportunities without these resource-based justifications.
If you are establishing thresholds, you should set the visitor use limits early on while the visitor numbers are still low, and NOT wait until the number of visitors has become too high. This is often difficult because the public isn’t convinced there is a problem until it is demonstrated.
Contacts—for further information and resources
John Neary, US Forest Service, Wilderness Field Manager
Admiralty Island Nat. Monument and Juneau Ranger District
8461 Old Dairy Rd., Juneau, AK 99801
Phone: 907-790-7481
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