With bear danger rising, biologists urge park users to steer clear of Rover's Run

With spawning salmon luring hungry brown bears to Campbell Creek in Anchorage, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is warning recreationists in Far North Bicentennial Park to be particularly wary on trails near the creek.

"We've had reports of at least one brown bear fishing near the BLM Science Center recently," Anchorage area wildlife biologist Dave Battle said. "We've had a fishery crew doing a survey that saw lots of bear sign. Of course, you can run into a bear anywhere in Alaska bear country. But around salmon streams, you'll get a concentration."

King, red and silver salmon all spawn in Campbell Creek. A mid-July Fish and Game survey of the South Fork of Campbell Creek counted 296 king salmon and 297 reds. A North Fork survey showed 60 kings, 513 reds and 2 silvers, which are just starting to move upstream now.

"There is always a high concentration of brown bears near Rover's Run — also known as Mellen's Way — this time of year," Battle said. "It's a dangerous time."

Rover's Run has a history of maulings.

Eight years ago, a woman on a mountain bike was badly injured by a bear. Six weeks later, Clivia Feliz, a 51-year-old massage therapist and avid trail runner, was mauled in the same area by a brown bear that left her with a ripped-up arm, a collapsed lung and puncture marks on her head and neck.

"It was my fault," she told a reporter from her Providence hospital bed at the time. "I shouldn't have been on that trail." She had misread a warning sign that she thought was more than a month old.

This year, state biologists say, signs of bear have been thickest from the Campbell Airstrip trailhead bridge downstream to Piper Street. Danger persists into October.

Any trail closure would come from the city, not the state. That hasn't happened since 2009, when Mark Begich was Anchorage mayor. His successor, Dan Sullivan, declined to close the trail, and another person was mauled in June 2010 near the intersection of Rover's Run and the Gasline Trail.

"We will not be closing the trail but we did post new signage alerting people to increased bear activity," said Anchorage Parks Superintendent Josh Durand.

Asked why the city wouldn't close the trail when salmon are in the creek, Durand said: "If you do put a sign saying it's closed, people do still use it.  We don't have the ability to enforce such things through the parks and recreation department."

A city park of 4,000 acres, Far North Bicentennial attracts mountain bikers, runners, hikers, dog walkers, anglers and others to an array of trails, some of which parallel Campbell Creek. The Bureau of Land Management estimates 80,000 users a year in the park.

Like Durand, Battle doesn't have much faith that trail users will heed any warning.

"It depends on the person," he said. "There are so many users concentrated in there this time of year, and their reaction is very individual.

"Some people will say, 'Hey, I want to see a brown bear,' and will go over there looking for them. Others will stay away. Anchorage has so many trails, there's really no reason to take a risk."