Heather Bryant

Last Friday, a black bear nosing through garbage in the Kodzoff Acres trailer park jumped on a dog after the owner tried to scare it away. The owner shot and killed the bear.

Alaska State Troopers and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game say unsecured garbage cans attracted the bear to the neighborhood. No one was cited for the garbage violation.

The Juneau Police Department was contacted by the resident who reported he had shot the bear after it had attacked his dog. The dog was not injured.

Stephanie Sell, a Fish and Game biologist, says a bear was reported in the area in the past few weeks, though it’s not clear if it’s the same one.

When a bear is killed in defense of life and property, the meat, hide and skull have to be turned over to the state.

The meat was donated to the Salvation Army, Sell says. The skull will be used for educational purposes. It’s not clear if the hide is salvageable.

A familiar summer sound returned to Auke Lake this weekend as a group of Jet Ski riders took to the water.

The outing wasn’t just for fun.  The handful of riders were there to learn about personal watercraft safety.

The training is part of Juneau’s plan to prevent accidents like the one in 2012 when high school student Savannah Cayce was severely injured while being pulled on an inner tube by a Jet Ski on Auke Lake. Two days later, she died of her injuries.

The Juneau Assembly later rejected a proposal to ban motorized watercraft on the lake,  opting instead to improve signage and water markers, and provide educational opportunities.

That’s where Shawn Alladio comes in. Alladio founded the boating safety education company K38 Water Safety. She works with boater education groups worldwide to teach safe practices.

“I think the personal watercraft community needs to take responsibility for their behavior and make sure that they’re accountable in their preparation, in their boat operation and in the safety of their passengers. They really need to take that seriously.”

Alladio says banning watercraft doesn’t solve the problem, it just causes users to move to new areas and continue bad habits. She says boater education helps save lives.

“I think that any time you have a problem the best thing is to approach it with solutions rather than ignore it or create a ban. I don’t care what the activity is,” Alladio says. “Because if a community bans a product or an activity, those users are not going to stop engaging an activity that they’ve invested money and time into. They’re going to migrate to other areas. And if those problems are not addressed, those problems from those behaviors of those enthusiasts will migrate to other areas. So it’s not really a solution to create a ban. The solution is to create reasonable and capable solutions that can be integrated into the waterway use.”

After a day in the classroom going over rules and regulations, Alladio spent Sunday on the lake with the riders demonstrating good techniques.

Juneau resident Noreen Folkerts has been riding jet skis for years, mostly on the ocean. She and her husband Mike both work for the Coast Guard and joined in the training session.

“These small boats are so easy just to jump on and hit the gas. They give you a thrill. It’s a thrill to ride them and it’s a thrill to ride them fast,” Folkerts says. “And it’s not necessarily the boat that’s the issue, it’s the people that get behind the steering and the attitude of those people. So if we push the safety part of it, it’s just going to be a safer activity for everybody.”

The workshop was a partnership between the Juneau Department of Parks and Recreation, the Coast Guard and the American Watercraft Association.

Parks and Recreation Director Brent Fischer says the department will gather data throughout the summer on lake use. A report is due to the Juneau Assembly this fall when members will again discuss the management plan.

One unlucky dog crossed paths with a black bear on the Lemon Creek Trail behind Home Depot this weekend and managed to walk away with only minor injuries.

Apparently, the unleashed dog wandered too close to a tree where two cubs were perched on Sunday afternoon. The mother bear attacked the dog then took off, says Ryan Scott, a wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

“I doubt the dog even knew they were there. The dog probably got too close to the tree and the female probably perceived a threat,” Scott says. “Once she dealt with the dog, it was over.”

Scott says the dog sustained a puncture wound and a slash.

When Scott heard about the encounter, he went to the area to look for the female bear and the dog.  Two Juneau police officers were there, too.

“It took us a while to find the female and then it took us some time to get the bears to move off so we could look around for the dog, still not knowing what was going on,” Scott says. “We were able to find evidence of a struggle. Shortly after we found that, we were informed the dog was located and was fine.”

He says it serves as a good reminder that bears are active and people should remain aware of their surroundings. Practice good bear safety habits such as making noise, traveling in groups, and always looking for signs of bears in the area.

A group of CoastAlaska reporters recently toured the Ketchikan Shipyard operated by Vigor Alaska.  The tour included Alaska Marine Highway System ferries undergoing maintenance. Here’s a look at what goes on behind the scenes and under ships in drydock.

All photos by Heather Bryant.

January has seen some heavy rainfall, and Juneau’s trails are paying a price.

If the Salmon Creek trail is your usual hike, you’re going to need to make plans for a new route. Heavy rainfall has washed out an 80-foot section of the road about a mile from the gate.

AEL&P’s Debbie Driscoll says that the main gate to the road and trail system will be closed until repairs can be made this summer.

This isn’t the first time that rain has damaged the road. Another closure happened in 2005 when an even larger section washed out, according an email from Driscoll.

Engineers will assess the trail this spring and make repairs.

KUCB reported yesterday that a new study on the hot springs powered by Akutan Volcano could be the answer to Akutan’s power needs. Akutan is home to one of the country’s largest seafood production facilities and a year-round population of a several hundred.

KUCB’s Annie Ropeik reports:

It sounds like a good deal for the city’s small residential population and its large Trident Seafoods processing plant. Right now, that all runs on fuel oil barged in from Unalaska.

But [head researcher Deborah] Bergfeld says a strong volcanic resource alone isn’t enough to tell whether geothermal is worth the cost of installation.

“You also have to have a need for the power. So it has to be people living there… there’s a lot of economy,” she says. “The balance has to work out.”

That’s a balance Akutan is hoping to strike. They’ve been working on a plan to tap into their geothermal resource for years, with the help of several grants.

Akutan Volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in the U.S. according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The study shows an increase in heat output of nearly ten times that measured in the ’80s.

Read the full story at KUCB here.