Every September, roughly 16 million people tune in to Cook Inlet’s wild bear coast, casting their vote for the fattest bear of Fat Bear Week in Katmai National Park. There’s no doubt these furry kin, their abundant habitat, and this annual tradition are cherished. The brown bears of Cook Inlet’s west coast make up one of the densest brown bear populations in the world, largely because the intact habitat provides them with a buffet of food sources. It’s clear that this ecosystem is functioning as it should and lending itself to healthy, happy, and impressively fat bears.
But just up the coastline from Katmai, in Lake Clark National Park, the proposed Johnson Tract gold mine threatens to change this bear paradise. Industrializing this landscape puts their feast of berries, razor clams, salmon, and sedge grass at risk of mining contamination and could drive bears away or make them less predictable. The bears of this region are also uniquely habituated to people. Over many years, the parks have created an environment where bears have become accustomed to people as observers and photographers rather than threats. That delicate trust is the backbone of a thriving bear-viewing ecotourism economy.
An ore highway and port cutting through this habitat would fragment bear country, introduce the risk of toxic contamination, and create the conditions for human-wildlife conflicts. It could change the way these bears view us, making them less safe for people to observe and enjoy.
The bears of Katmai get a camera and a contest. The bears in Lake Clark get a mine. But it’s all the same watershed, the same coastline, and the same wild food web that these bears rely on.
If you care about fat bears in Katmai, send some love to their neighbors. Sign our petition urging the Army Corps of Engineers to prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement and fully account for the impacts this mine could have on bears, fish, birds, clams, and people alike.