August 25 2009

We’ve had a bear rampaging through Gothic. It’s quite worrisome because of how aggressive it is. Luckily no one has been hurt. It’s been climbing through windows, popping out doors, and breaking car windows. We’ve had problems in the past, but not like this. Usually if a bear shows up, we make certain the townsite is buttoned up and the bear goes away. I’m fairly certain this one learned bad habits elsewhere. It knows what refrigerators and cabins are. Indeed, the local police indicate it looks like a bear that had been getting food in the town of Mt. Crested Butte. A book I highly recommend is John McPhee’s “Coming into the Country” about Alaska. He’s a wonderful writer and gives you an insight into the richness of Alaska. One of the items he talks about is the philosophical approach people take to being in grizzly country. Many arm themselves. Others talk about how they are just visitors in grizzly country; they take precautions like bear spray and bullhorns. But since they make a conscious decision to put themselves at risk, they don’t carry a gun. Unfortunately the Lab can’t take such an approach. Gothic is a place where humans live. It’s our responsibility to make that environment as safe as possible, whether it is overhauling electrical systems or protecting people from bears. We’ve brought in the experts, Division of Wildlife, and they’ve responded quickly and professionally. We’ve got a bear trap set next to the dining hall. Hopefully it will be caught soon. I think we’ve got an unusual situation in that there is a generation of bears that grew up scavenging trash in the local municipalities. Hopefully our bear problems will fade as new bears go back to more natural foraging patterns. But it does force me to think about our footprint as humans on the world. At the end of the day, we are all guests in this world. Hopefully we can use our intelligence and resources wisely so that the generations that follow us continue to be welcomed.