EXISTING INDUSTRY
For decades, the Johnson Tract Mine sat dormant, less active than the Redoubt Volcano that towers skyward to the North. All the while, Alaskan families carved out livelihoods for themselves along the coast. Learning how to coexist with brown bears helped Lodge owners curate some of the best bear viewing locations on earth. As Cook Inlet commercial fishing operations remained steadfast as an Alaskan tradition, ecotourism quickly boomed and continues to thrive alongside fishing as an economic driver on the Bear Coast.
Bear Viewing Lodges
When you look out across the meadows and tide flats around Silver Salmon Creek, it is almost impossible to imagine the landscape without bears. For most of the summer months, you'd be hard pressed to spend a day in the area without seeing a bear. Even when bear activity wanes out in the open and the lush berries call the bears deeper into the forest and out of view, you can still spot their trails through the tall grass, notice their rub marks on trees, and glimpse tufts of fur clinging to grass and swaying in the breeze. Even when bears aren't visible, you can close your eyes and inhale their secret message: "I am here." Silver Salmon Creek is bear country, through and through. But it hasn't always been this way.
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For a time, commercial fishing operations dominated the area around Silver Salmon Creek. The operations had an adversarial relationship with the local brown bears, which lead to the bears being all but extirpated from the area. Over time, the owners of the local lodges realized there is just as much bounty to be had from a coexistent relationship with bears as there is with salmon. Bears excite a thrilling sense of wonder that draws people to Alaska from far and wide. The lodge owners mindfully took steps to show the bears more tolerance in the area, and over decades they enabled the bear population to return to its original abundance while also showing a significant tolerance toward humans.
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Now, the mining industry that has no reverence for the land in which they operate is demanding priority over the existing economy of the Bear Coast that is built around coexisting with bears and living with a minimal footprint out of respect for the wilderness. To learn more about the bears of Lake Clark National Park and the Bear Coast click here.