Park officials on Tuesday still had not released the name of the hiker who shot the bear, and rangers are investigating the shooting to determine if it was justified, according to park spokeswoman Kris Fister. She did not say if the park service was contemplating criminal charges against the shooter.
A new law passed by Congress in February made it legal to carry firearms in the area of the park where the bear was shot but illegal to discharge them. Rangers said it was the first known instance of a grizzly bear being shot by a visitor in the wilderness portion of Denali, formerly called Mount McKinley National Park.
The man who shot the bear was hiking with a woman Friday evening in the Igloo Canyon area when the bear emerged from trailside brush and charged the woman, according to accounts from the hikers to park officials.
The man fired nine rounds from a .45-caliber, semiautomatic pistol at the bear, which then stopped and walked into the brush.
The two hiked about 1 1/2 miles out to Denali Park Road to report the shooting to rangers, who restricted access to backcountry units in the area for fear that the bear was wounded and dangerous.
On Saturday, rangers returned and found the dead bear about 100 feet from the shooting site.
TPP... Forget my belief that the folks working at Denali have no desire to be "federal landlords", at least in the way that you might imagine or characterize. Ak State officials and the political process as it exists would forever make such a construct impossible, which you would realize if you had half a clue or any sensitivity to the fact that many others do not share your point of view.
Public hearings? For God sake's lad, ANILCA, which established the 80 million acres of Conservation System Unit lands in Alaska in 1980, was 10 years or more in the making, marked by more public hearings, debates, and Congressional gyrations than perhaps any piece of legislation in American history! This wasn't Federal Fiat - it was American Democracy in action at its finest; civilized (for the most part), informed investigation, debate, compromise, and ultimate action as no other country on Earth can do. No party or interest group got everything they wanted - but there were no winners or losers either. Just because any one individual doesn't agree with the final outcome doesn't make that outcome illegitimate.
Issues today are big and complex. True facts are sometimes hard to come by. True, responsible citizenship requires all of us to be patient, disciplined, and have a willingness to "look behind the curtain" before rushing to judgment, especially given the biased, self-serving media environment(right and left) in which we live.
Hopefully we've passed the day when the strongest or the one who shouts loudest can carry the day. For the most part, I think that is true. It is also true that humility, tolerance, and understanding are virtues.
ps. I suspect that the Russians would still own Alaska were it not for the rather brilliant (in retrospect)acquisition of this great land by the Federal Government...
I am sure "officials" would for one be the park superintendent Paul Anderson. He is not appointed or elected. He was a job applicant hired on his resume and capabilities like the rest of the park staff. If you would like further information on the park go to nps.gov/dena. Other staff involved here would be the Park law enforcement and wildlife biologists. I would hardly call them "federal landlords." This article is just keeping the public informed that as of yet no decisions have been made on the shooting - some people are awaiting that decision!
You write an article to say that there is no new news? Really?
Come on guys, I know you can do better than that.