Katmai’s bridge to nowhere

Each summer, Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park attracts hundreds of visitors, most of whom come to view brown bears that gather on Brooks River. A bear atop Brooks Falls poised to snag a leaping salmon is one of Alaska's iconic images.

Bear viewing at Brooks has boomed in recent years. A steady increase in visitor numbers and a surge in 2016 reflect the overall increase in Alaska travel. An up-close look at a wild bear has become a hallmark of almost every Alaska vacation.

This summer, the National Park Service will begin construction of a new bridge across Brooks River to allay the bottleneck of bear viewers at one of the world's most famous bear-viewing locations.

Overcrowding has been a problem at Katmai for years, mainly in July, the peak season for activity at Brooks Falls. Other than limits on the campground, the park does not currently limit visitation. Day-trippers and lodge guests vie with campers for access to the falls viewing platform.

Bears fish the entire length of the river, a favored spot near the existing seasonal bridge. The park enforces a distance regulation to separate people from bears, which often creates a traffic jam at the bridge. Crowds form as visitors wait for bears to move away. Once across the river, long lines again develop at the Brooks Falls trailhead as visitors await their turn to access the viewing platform at the falls. Visitors in past seasons sometimes were limited to as little as 20 minutes at the platform; currently, the limit in peak season is one hour. Imagine spending thousands of dollars to access a jewel in the National Park system and being allowed only 20 minutes at the prime location. Consequently, some knowledgeable travelers — Alaskans — are dissuaded from visiting the park. Yet the new park concessionaire, operator of Brooks Lodge, reportedly plans this summer to increase the number of fly-in day visitors, which will exacerbate the problem.

The multimillion-dollar bridge and approach ramps across the river mouth will be 14 feet high and more than 1,550 feet long. The Park Service states that the purpose of the new bridge is to "enhance visitor experience and safety." To facilitate construction, the park will also construct a new boat landing and a short access road.

The new bridge will likely alleviate the visitor jams at either side of the current floating bridge, but will do absolutely nothing to reduce or eliminate the lines at the falls' trailhead. The bridge will only funnel ever-higher numbers of visitors across the river, with the foreseeable result that platform time will be further reduced to accommodate the greater demand.

Brooks Camp, for all its flaws, maintains a sense of the rustic and a sense of the wild. Small log cabins and the floating bridge maintain the wild feel many visitors expect in remote Alaska. A freeway overpass-like structure is totally inappropriate for this area, given its brief one-month-long peak season. One of the most beautiful locations within the entire park will be permanently scarred by this intrusive project. A $13 million bridge to solve a problem that exists for a few weeks a year makes little economic sense.

[Video: Brooks Falls brown bears fish for salmon]

The vast majority of visitors to Brooks come to see bears in world-class bear habitat and in an incredibly scenic location, relatively unspoiled by infrastructure. I've never heard any visitor suggest their experience would be heightened by a mega-bridge. Most want less crowding and longer viewing times at the falls, not reduced or tightly limited viewing times. The bridge will do little other than facilitate easy movement of ever-larger numbers of people. It is hard to imagine many visitors suggesting that a mega-bridge in such a beautiful location is worth trading for easier access or fewer hassles at the floating bridge.

[Beyond the bears: Appreciating other Brooks Camp attractions in Katmai]

We go as visitors to Katmai to view these bears on their terms. I think it's reasonable to expect to wait while a bear rests or saunters by. It's an inconvenience, but convenience shouldn't be the reason we're there.
The real issue at Katmai is the National Park Service's longstanding inability or unwillingness to limit visitation. Many wildlife habitats can be quickly degraded and wildlife displaced by too many people. We see this same problem developing on the Katmai coast, where fly-in day-trippers are negatively affecting the wildlife resource. So far, the park service has done nothing to curtail this growing problem. Nearby McNeil River State Game Sanctuary offers a model for Katmai and other natural areas. Instead of funneling ever-larger numbers of people into the sanctuary, visitation is tightly controlled. Consequently, McNeil's world-class viewer experience has remained undiminished for decades.

Katmai's bridge to nowhere will only degrade the park and park experience when what is really needed is limits on visitation.

Tom Walker is an Alaskan author and wildlife photographer. He lives in the Denali Park area.