My great Alaskan road trip started on a sunny day in Anchorage, but not before I loaded my car with coffee, clothes, waders and bear-aware outreach materials, including stickers, e-fence program brochures and fact sheets. I was setting out to drive down the length of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula and experience vibrant communities surrounded by breathtaking views while, most importantly, helping communities learn to live peacefully alongside bears.
Each year, I look forward to the Kenai Peninsula Bear Safety and Electric Fencing workshops. This year, I made five stops in seven days to give presentations. During two stops – in Homer and Hope – I also visited two properties to offer guidance on how the landowners can design their fences to better live alongside Alaska’s bears.
Defenders of Wildlife and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have partnered since 2021 to provide this workshop series to communities throughout the Kenai Peninsula. These workshops are my opportunity to talk to community members face to face about our Electric Fence Incentive Program, answering questions and encouraging people to use this tool to protect their bear attractants.
This year I also had the pleasure of joining up with some other Defenders to do beluga monitoring and water quality sampling in this area.
Join me on this exciting adventure to see what the Kenai Peninsula has to offer!
Stop 1: Homer
My first stop was in Homer, which sits at the very end of the Kenai Peninsula. As the road turns down a steep hill into the city, you are met with breathtaking views of Kachemak Bay, the mountains of the Kachemak Bay State Wilderness Park and The Homer Spit. If I had to pick a favorite place on the Kenai, it would be Homer.
In the summer months the “Spit” is a tourist hot spot with plenty of shopping opportunities and places to book various hiking, bear viewing, fishing and kayaking excursions. In the off and shoulder seasons — when I am usually there for work — the atmosphere is calmer. In many ways, Homer reminds me of the beach towns on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, I visited in the winter during my undergrad and grad school years.
Our workshop in Homer is usually well-attended, and this year was no exception. The strong beekeeping and gardening community here has been instrumental in spreading the word about our workshops and Incentive Program. Defenders' coexistence programs, like the Electric Fence Incentive Program, help protect Kenai’s geographically isolated brown bear populations, which are especially vulnerable to population decline. Threats to these bears include climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation, and conflict with people. Defenders connects homeowners with tools to prevent bear mortality related to conflict with people over chickens, gardens, beehives, compost, garbage and more.
Stop 2 and 3: Soldotna and Funny River
Defenders’ Alaska Marine Representative, Ragen Davey, and Alaska Senior Representative, Christi Heun, welcomed me on my stop to Soldotna. I joined them in finishing up their beluga monitoring session. While we didn’t see any belugas, we did see a young moose and several juvenile bald eagles.
The three of us kicked off the following day with water quality testing in the Kenai River. For the last few years, Defenders has partnered with the Kenai Watershed Forum and others to monitor the water quality of the Kenai River. This river is important for salmon, which are the primary food source of endangered Cook Inlet belugas. Our team took samples from three sites and delivered them to the Kenai Watershed Forum for analysis.
Following our field work, I said goodbye to Ragen and Christi and headed to Funny River for my second workshop of the week. Funny River is a small, rural community of roughly 900 people. It is located about 91 miles north of Homer and several miles off of Alaska Route 1, the main highway that runs the length of the Kenai Peninsula. In such a remote location, Funny River is surrounded by quality bear and moose habitat.
Only a few miles away runs the Kenai River, a popular fishing location for both people and bears. As a result, Funny River residents live in close proximity to bears, making coexistence tools like electric fencing crucial to keeping the community safe for people and bears.
My workshop the next day was back in Soldotna and set a record for the most people in attendance at one of our electric fencing workshops! My hope is that as these programs become a consistent annual presence in these communities, they can grow into larger events, gaining greater community involvement over time.
Stop 4: Hope
Two hours north of Funny River, and just short of 2 hours south of Anchorage, is Hope, Alaska. Another very small community, Hope is well-known for beautiful coastal camping along Turnagain Arm – a branch of Cook Inlet - and live music every weekend at the Creekbend Cafe and Acres.
Like many Alaskan communities, Hope is “bear country” and the residents know they are sharing the area with bears. The number of bear fatalities resulting from conflict has fortunately been low here. The number of chicken coops and other attractants, however, is increasing in the community. If we want to best position bear populations to weather future environmental challenges, especially those resulting from climate change, it's important to help residents of places like Hope equip themselves with the resources to prevent the conflicts that typically lead to bear deaths.
Stop 5: Seward
My final stop was in Seward, Alaska, an hour and 20 minutes southeast of Hope. Seward, like Homer and Hope, is a coastal community. Whales, sea lions, sea otters and seals are frequently seen from Seward’s shores.
We have strong partnerships in Seward, including with Resurrection Bay Conservation Alliance and the Seward Cares for Its Bears Working Group, which Defenders joined this year. Together, we’ve supplied residents of the Seward and Moose Pass area with bear-resistant garbage cans, organized outreach events to share information about the Electric Fence Incentive Program and bear safety and subsidized electric fences in the area.
I thoroughly enjoy my trips to the Kenai Peninsula and am excited to continue growing this workshop series to include more locations and offer more information and resources to Kenai Peninsula residents!
Author
Isabel Grant
Isabel received her Master of Science in Conservation Medicine from the Cummings School of
Wildlife & Wild Places
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