Kenai Peninsula residents have reported close encounters with bears starting around mid-April. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reminds Alaskans that this time of year you should always be bear aware.

Local wildlife biologist Jeff Selinger says Kenai Peninsula residents should take time to clean up any bear attractants on their properties: “Yeah there is a lot of different things that people can do, they can start by just going out and looking around the yard or in the neighborhoods or the wood lots around their house because there could be things that accumulated over the winter, there could even be carcasses from animals that died during the winter. Just check around, be careful while you’re doing it, clean up anything that might attract bears into your neighborhood, mainly garbage issues or items that have a lot of odor to them.”

The shift in weather is a sure sign of spring and a reminder for Alaskans to start practicing their “bear etiquette” by cleaning up food attractants around homes and neighborhoods.

Bears are already being seen in Anchorage and surrounding areas and the DF&G suggests residents bring in bird feeders, remove or secure trash, dog food – anything that might seem tasty to a hungry bear.

Selinger also outlined what to do in the event of a bear wandering into a residential neighborhood: “The first thing to do is to make sure everybody’s safe, get everybody into a safe area inside the house preferably, you can try to scare the animal away by doing it in a safe manor by making noises, you know going outside and trying to move the animal out of the area, only do that if you can do it in a safe manor, I need to emphasize that. But then you should also contact the Department of Fish & Game and we will make a site visit to see if there’s anything that we can see that might have brought the animal to the area.”

The local Alaska Department of Fish and Game number to report bear sightings or incidents is 262-9368.